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Brake problems and rear-start penalties shaped the build-up to Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350. Denny Hamlin, the points leader entering the race, was sent to the back after Joe Gibbs Racing changed a cooling unit on the No. 11 car before the green flag, and NASCAR said the adjustment was unapproved. Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott also started from the rear after crashes in qualifying and practice, while Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Riley Herbst reported brake-pressure problems soon after they got on track Saturday at Iowa Speedway.

Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing spent Saturday morning repairing the affected cars. Teams were allowed to bleed brake lines and replace cracked rotors for safety, but NASCAR would not allow a brake-pad change unless the manufacturer reported a defect, and crews could not switch between the heavier short-track and road-course rotors and the lighter superspeedway version. Crew chief Chris Gayle said Hamlin had only a 50-50 chance of reaching the finish at full speed, while crew chief James Small said Briscoe’s brake pads were destroyed. The brake issues also affected the three 23XI Racing cars — Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst — to varying degrees, as the teams tested setup ideas through the JGR-23XI technical alliance for the Chase for the Championship.

The trouble carried into the race itself. On Lap 3, Tyler Reddick got loose, slid up the track and collected Erik Jones, badly damaging both cars and bringing out a caution. Reddick said, “We have no oil pressure,” and finished 36th, while Jones was 35th. Hamlin stayed in the race but said, “I can’t brake, I have no brakes.” After the penalties and early trouble, Ryan Blaney closed to within 120 points of Hamlin in the standings.

Two NASCAR Cup Series teams were penalized after failing pre-race technical inspection twice Saturday at Iowa Speedway, with Ryan Preece’s No. 60 RFK Racing Ford and Todd Gilliland’s No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford both eventually clearing on a third attempt. The failures cost RFK Racing car chief Jerry Cook and Front Row Motorsports car chief Joe Marra the rest of the weekend, and both teams lost their pit stall selection for Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350. Because the cars passed on the third try, neither team had to serve a drive-through penalty at the start of the race.

The inspection problems came as Preece entered the weekend 17th in points, 38 points below the provisional final playoff spot with four regular-season races left. Preece had not posted a top-five finish in 2026 and was 35th after a slow practice run. Gilliland came in 23rd in the standings after winning the In-Season Challenge at Indianapolis, and he had been fourth fastest in practice.

NASCAR also said Sunday that the Nos. 6, 9 and 11 cars of Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin would start from the rear of the field after unapproved adjustments ahead of the Iowa race, adding to a busy penalty list at the 7/8-mile oval in Newton.

Ty Gibbs won the NASCAR Cup Series Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway on Sunday, holding off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney for his second Cup victory of the 2026 season. Gibbs also benefited from a two-tire strategy call, and one report said he recovered from an early pit-stop problem that dropped him to 28th before he surged back to the front in the closing stages. Christopher Bell finished second, Blaney was third, Josh Berry was fourth and Denny Hamlin placed fifth.

Blaney had opened the race by winning Stage 1, leading all 70 laps from the pole, with Joey Logano second and Kyle Larson third. Bell won Stage 2, with Logano second and Ross Chastain third. Gibbs was in the lead in a Stage 3 report, with Bell second and Blaney third. The 350-lap race at Iowa Speedway also featured an early Lap 4 crash that ended the races for Tyler Reddick and Erik Jones.

Chastain finished in the top 10 and earned 13 stage points, a result that helped keep his Chase hopes alive. Connor Zilisch logged front-running laps and collected stage points. Elsewhere in the field, William Byron finished ninth, Logano was 14th, Chase Elliott 15th and Kyle Larson 33rd after contact and a four-wide incident. Tyler Reddick finished 36th and last.

Tyler Reddick’s crash at Iowa damaged Erik Jones’ NASCAR playoff hopes after the two Toyota drivers got together early in Sunday’s Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway. Reports placed the wreck on lap 4 or lap 5, but it happened while Reddick and Jones were battling for eighth place in Turn 1, when Reddick got loose, slid up the track and hit the outside wall, collecting Jones and bringing out a caution. Both drivers were sent to the garage, later evaluated and released from the infield care center, and both were done for the day, with Jones credited with a 35th-place finish and Reddick 36th.

Jones said he and the No. 43 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB team needed “a few perfect weeks” to reach the postseason, and the early crash left the path much harder. He entered Iowa 18th in the standings and 44 points below the playoff cutline, and the wreck further hurt his chances after a race in which his team needed a strong result.

Reddick said the mistake was his fault, saying he “got out of shape at a corner entry” and calling the crash “gut-wrenching.” He also said he was frustrated at knocking out a fellow Toyota teammate who was fighting for a playoff spot. Reddick entered the race after winning the first three events of the season, but he had been struggling recently and falling in the standings, with Denny Hamlin having built an 84-point lead over him after Indianapolis.

Haas Factory Team will expand to three full-time cars in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2027, and Dean Thompson will join the organization to drive its third entry on a multi-year deal. The 24-year-old will move from Sam Hunt Racing’s Toyota program to a Haas Chevrolet, with team president Joe Custer announcing the move at Iowa Speedway on Saturday.

Thompson is in his second full-time season in the series and has 57 career starts, one top-five finish and 10 top-10s. He posted eight top-10s in 2025 and has added two more through the first 22 races of 2026, with his best result this year a sixth-place finish at Talladega in April. Before moving up, he ran in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series from 2022 to 2024, making 70 starts and earning 11 top-10 finishes.

Custer said Thompson has shown strong progression and said he will compete at the highest level. Thompson said his long relationship with Joe Custer and Cole Custer helped lead to the opportunity, and he said he is excited to join Haas Factory Team and race for wins and a championship. Thompson Pipe Group and MCM Transportation will serve as primary partners on the Chevrolet, and Haas said the car number and crew chief will be announced later. The team currently fields two full-time O’Reilly Series cars for Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer, and it remains committed to its single-car Cup Series operation with Cole Custer.