The NASCAR Xfinity Series made a trip back to the mid-west for their second race of the year at Iowa Speedway or as Boyd refers to it, “the land of the corn.” Boyd was optimistic coming into the weekend after recording a 22nd place finish just five weeks ago at the 7/8- mile of Iowa Speedway.
After a solid race in New Hampshire, Jason Miller elected to bring the same car to Iowa Speedway this weekend. Friday’s practice session went smoothly and the Grunt Style Chevy seemed to show good speed on race runs. Boyd qualified in the 27th position, but was confident he would move up during the race.
The green flag dropped and Boyd immediately fought an extremely loose handling race car. The first caution was displayed for debris from the 9 of Tyler Reddick. Miller called for Boyd to stay out, hoping the car would tighten up the longer Boyd ran. On lap 54 caution was once again displayed for the 01 of Vinnie Miller. During the caution the 40 of Chad Finchum caught on fire, which would end his day. The extended clean up resulted in the conclusion of the first stage. Cole Custer won the stage and Boyd was 27th.
Miller called for four tires, fuel, and adjustments to help tighten the Grunt Style Chevy up. The second stage began and the adjustments seemed to help. Boyd made his way to 26th and was in position to receive the lucky dog for over half the stage. The team would have no luck, as the stage would go caution free. Christopher Bell won the second stage with Boyd in the 26th position. Boyd radioed and said he was still just “way too free on entry.”
Miller once again brought Boyd down for service and made several adjustments to tighten him up even more. Stage three had a very similar look to the previous stage with lots of green flag racing. With 48 laps remaining Boyd made a green flag pitstop and his Grunt Style Gladiators managed to pick him up an extra spot, which moved Boyd into the 25th position. With 13 laps remaining caution waved for the 60 of Chase Briscoe spinning around right in front of leader Christopher Bell. After a crazy restart the 26 of Max Tullman took a big hit along with the 2 of Matt Tifft. Christopher Bell won the race, which was his third win in a row. Boyd steered clear of the late carnage and brought home the Grunt Style Chevrolet in the 23rd position. The result marked Boyd’s six top 25 finish in the last seven races.
After the race Boyd reflected, “Overall, it was another solid weekend for our team. We got a little behind early from that first stage. We put ourselves in position to get our lap back in the second stage, but we couldn’t catch a break unfortunately. We were just way too loose most of that race, but Jason Miller and the guys did a great job making adjustments to the Grunt Style Chevy throughout the day. It’s been fun clicking off these top 25’s recently, so we’ll go knock this first road course race out at Watkins Glen and see how we stack up.”
After his sixth top 25 in the last seven races, Boyd remains 22nd in driver standings. The Xfinity Series heads to Watkins Glen International next weekend for it’s first road course race of the season. Coverage of the Zippo 200 will begin Saturday August 4th at 3:00 pm ET.
Spencer Boyd Racing PR/Photo Credit Robert Laberge/Getty Images
