NASCAR cancels Xfinity Series qualifying at Iowa due to rain, Austin Hill on pole
The NASCAR festivities at Iowa Speedway are getting a little bit of a pause for the moment. Qualifying has been canceled. The Xfinity Series starting grid will be set by the metric.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series has returned to Iowa Speedway. This is a special weekend for both the series and for the track. Of course, the fans as well. It wouldn’t be a NASCAR weekend without a little rain, right?
This will pass and the track will be dried for this afternoon’s Xfinity Series race. Stay tuned and we will get some NASCAR action on the track soon enough.
Austin Hill is on the pole. Shane van Gisbergen will line up P2 but is in a backup car after a wreck in practice. So, SVG will have to go to the rear and learn this race track as he tries to pass the field.
With Austin Hill on the pole, I think he could be hard to defeat. While he is a superspeedway ace, Hill has skills on more than just the drafting tracks. We have seen him have success at road courses and short tracks, but the wins have not been there.
Could that change here at Iowa today? NASCAR will try its best to get the track ready to go for the race around 3:30 EST this afternoon. By the looks of the radar, we are going to get racing in today. However, Cup Series qualifying is now in jeopardy as well.
Iowa Speedway is hosting the Cup Series for the first time ever this weekend. They had to get the full experience with rain and delays and all of the great stuff that comes when you schedule a NASCAR race in your city.
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NASCAR fighting off the rain at Iowa
Jet driers are on the track as the rain is light for the time being. As long as the heavy stuff doesn’t come down, managing the track won’t be difficult. We have seen these rain storms come and go and we have seen them stick around longer than expected in the past before, too.
NASCAR is going to do what they can to do as much at Iowa as possible. Between the Cup Series practice yesterday and the ARCA Menards Series race, I think we are in store for great racing and action on the track today and on Sunday.
It was young Connor Zilisch against William Sawalich on Friday night in ARCA. Two 17-year-old drivers battling it out in stock cars. There was a lot of beating and banging, fenders were used, tires were rubbed. Honestly, it was one of the best ARCA races I’ve seen. Dover was great earlier this year, too. Something about this Zilisch kid…
So, we have Xfinity and Cup Series action to look forward to. Iowa Speedway has produced a great crowd for the weekend and they will be hungry to see cars going around the 7/8ths mile track. Keep tuned into USA Network today and we will get to the fun stuff soon.