Race winner Ryan Blaney on what this win means after coming in second to Kyle Busch in Indianapolis: “This doesn’t make up for it (Indy). But it sure helps forget about it.”
Blaney on competing with only one Sprint Cup driver racing in Iowa today: “You have to go into every race thinking you can win no matter who is in the race. It doesn’t change a whole lot.”
Kenny Wallace on his final start: “Not sad at all this is my last race. They got everything out of me I can give right now.”
NBCN presented the NASCAR XFINITY Series US Cellular 250 earlier this evening from Iowa Speedway. Saturday evening’s festivities began with the Countdown to Green pre-race show, hosted by veteran motorsports broadcaster Ralph Sheheen alongside lead analyst and three-time Daytona 500 winner, Dale Jarrett. Reporters Jim Noble, Alex Hayden and Marty Snider patrolled pit road at “The Fastest Short Track on the Planet.”
Once the green flag dropped, Sheheen, Jarrett, Noble, Hayden and Snider held down the broadcast, which culminated with a green-white-checker victory for No. 22 Ryan Blaney.
| Position | Driver | Car # |
| 1 | Ryan Blaney | 22 |
| 2 | Regan Smith | 7 |
| 3 | Brian Scott | 2 |
| 4 | Ty Dillon | 3 |
| 5 | Brendan Gaughan | 62 |
The night began with a record 75 consecutive laps of green flag racing. At 51-years-old, Kenny Wallace received one final weekend in the spotlight before retiring from NASCAR racing. Wallace made his 547th XFINITY start and 905th overall NASCAR racing start at Iowa Speedway, a track designed by his older brother, NASCAR Hall of Famer, Rusty Wallace. After qualifying 7th earlier in the day, Wallace went on to finish 15th.
Drew Herring qualified the No. 54 car fifth before handing over the keys to Erik Jones. Jones flew to Iowa from Pocono Raceway, where he qualified for tomorrow’s 1:30 p.m. ET Sprint Cup race earlier today, in time to race the No. 54 machine in Iowa tonight. Jones went on to finish seventh.
The following are highlights from this evening’s XFINITY pre-race and race coverage on NBC.
Race winner Blaney on competing with only one Sprint Cup driver racing in Iowa today: “You have to go into every race thinking you can win no matter who is in the race. It doesn’t change a whole lot.”
Blaney on Kenny Wallace’s last race: “We wish him well. He has done a lot for this sport. It is going to be hard to see him go. It is nice to be racing here with him tonight.”
Jones on racing this weekend’s split-location double header: “I wish I could have gotten more (info). When we did this back at Chicago and Iowa, the first time, I had a little more time to watch practice and take it all in.”
Kenny Wallace on his final start: “Not sad at all that this is my last race. They got everything out of me I can give right now. I am like an orange, you squeezed me and that is all I got...They (young drivers) are wearing me out. No doubt I’m chasing them hard every lap. I’m not going to give up.”
Jarrett on Iowa Speedway from a driver’s perspective: “It is a hard 250 laps around this race track. It is very exciting racing for us to watch. Drivers work extremely hard. It is a rough race track. You are searching around for grip the entire night…We are going to have a lot of cars up front battling.”
Bubba Wallace Jr. to Jarrett on his Iowa experience: “I have been coming here since 2010. It gives you a good feeling coming back. I’m looking to have some fun tonight.”
Jarrett on the first restart in Iowa: “We have never seen action like this on the restarts, being able to go two or three wide at this racetrack. They have never ventured to before. It is making for great racing.”
Snider on Daniel Suarez’ abrupt pit stop when only a second behind the leader: “This is absolutely heartbreaking. He was working his way through traffic so well. He was catching the leaders and now he has a tire going down.”
With less than a 100 laps to go, Jarrett’s impression on the cooling race track: “Is the bottom and middle of the race track going to be the preferred line, and the fastest way around here? Is it going to have the most grip? That is what these drivers are going to have to figure out as this race track continues to cool down.”
Jarrett on Blaney being two-to-three laps short on fuel: “I don’t think there is any doubt he can make it. He needs a good handling race car. Obviously he is out front he has got that. Next it takes a driver to understand how to save fuel…He can certainly find that push if that is really what he is short, if we are getting the full story from the crew chief.”
Jarrett on Kenny Wallace getting loose with 41 laps to go: “Kenny had a solid run here tonight in his final XFINITY start. Not the way you want to do things, but he still has time to move his way back up through the pack.”
Race winner Ryan Blaney on what this win means after coming in second to Kyle Busch in Indianapolis: “This doesn’t make up for it (Indy). But it sure helps forget about it.”
Runner-up Regan Smith on Blaney’s smoking tire finish: “It looked like his car got tight. I just didn’t have quite enough to get up to his fender, to be able to bog him down and get a run out of him.”
NBCSN’s NASCAR coverage continues tomorrow with a 60-minute edition of NASCAR America Sunday presented by DraftKings at noon ET, followed by the Countdown to Green, Served by Sonic pre-race show at 1 p.m. ET. At 1:30 p.m. ET, coverage shifts to the broadcast booth as NBCSN presents Sprint Cup Racing from Pocono
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–NBC SPORTS GROUP–