Saturday’s qualifying session for the Iowa Corn 350 was one of the most interesting sessions of the season so far.
With overcast skies and mostly repaved corners at the Iowa Speedway, most of the NASCAR Cup Series field had to fight a loose condition on their qualifying runs, forcing cars already running on the edge of control to be even more uneasy than usual.
Todd Gilliland scraped the wall off of turn two, while Kyle Busch and Josh Berry both suffered big wiggles in turns two and four, respectively.
In an abbreviated session that only saw one round due to impending rain, it was Sonoma winner Kyle Larson who took the pole, edging out defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney.
Berry qualified third, with Daytona 500 champion William Byron placing fourth. Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five, while Chase Briscoe and Kyle Busch placed sixth and seventh, respectively.
Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell rounded out the top 10 qualifiers in Saturday’s session.
Other notable qualifying efforts include Joey Logano in 11th, Denny Hamlin in 12th, Bubba Wallace in 16th, Ty Gibbs in 27th and Martin Truex Jr in 31st. Austin Dillon qualified last for Sunday’s race and will roll off 36th.
The Iowa Corn 350 is set to go green shortly after 7 p.m. ET on Sunday. The race will air on USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.