Harrison Burton and the No. 21 Menards/MasterForce Tools team are headed to Iowa Speedway for Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350, the first Cup Series race on the 7/8-mile oval in Newton, Iowa.
While it’s the first stop there for the Cup Series, Burton and his crew chief Jeremy Bullins have raced on the track in their Xfinity Series days.
Burton raced there once, in 2019, and finished fourth.
Bullins has been a crew chief for six Xfinity races at Iowa, with two wins, with Brad Keselowski driving in 2013 and 2014 and a runner-up with Ryan Blaney in 2014. His other three finishes were top-10s, giving him an average finish there of 5.2 and a pole by Blaney to go along with the finishes.
But it’s the races where Bullins got the big trophy that mean the most and have him excited about returning there.
“Personally, I have some great memories of some Xfinity series wins from Iowa, so I’m definitely looking forward to getting back out there,” Bullins said. “I’m glad to see the Cup series race there, because the area is such a great market for motorsports in general.”
NASCAR hasn’t run a national series race at Iowa since 2019, and officials determined that some repaving in the turns was needed before this weekend’s race. That will be a challenge for drivers and crew chiefs.
“The partial repave will be interesting with the corners being freshly paved and smoother than before, but the straightaways will still be a bit rough so corner exit and corner entry could be a little challenging at the transitions,” Bullins said.
A 50-minute practice session is set to kick off Friday at 4:35 p.m. Central Time (5:35 p.m. Eastern), and qualifying is scheduled for Saturday at 12:05 p.m. (1:05 Eastern).
USA Network will carry the TV coverage of practice, with NBC broadcasting the qualifying session.
Sunday’s 350-lap, 306.25-mile race should get the green flag shortly after 6 p.m. (7 p.m. Eastern) with TV coverage on USA.
Stage breaks are planned for Laps 70 and 201.
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