While the Kentucky young gun and former NASCAR K&N Pro Series East champion could not make enough headway to pass Kennedy for second, a caution with 23 laps left when Derek Scott turned the machine of Tommy Joe Martins up the track and hard into the turn one wall would aid the front-runners and give Rhodes and company a chance to challenge for the win.
The incident actually drew a five minute, 46 second red flag for cleanup before resuming with 13 laps to go, with Reddick out front and drivers all over the place as Cole Custer found a lane on the outside of Reddick. The two raced wheel-to-wheel for the top spot exiting turn four, with Custer edging ahead at the stripe before clearing Reddick entering turn one.
The battle wasn’t done, however.
Two laps later, the lead battle was three wide as Custer got loose and opened the door for Rhodes and Reddick to challenge in a scrum that nearly got physical at the 10 to go mark. The side-by-side-by-side duel slowed the trio’s momentum, however, and gave Byron a massive run up the outside. He hauled around Rhodes exiting turn two and did the same to Custer exiting turn four as Rhodes looked underneath both of them — never looking back from there.
Caleb Holman’s crash in turn two with seven laps to go set up the green-white-checkered finish, and though Custer charged to the high side and tried everything he could to get a run on Byron, he was forced to settle for a season-best of second.
“They were better than us, for sure,” Custer admitted. “I thought I could out-muscle him (on the restart) and I thought I had him (going into turn one), but it wasn’t enough. I didn’t get a good enough restart and that made the difference. I gotta thank Marcus Richmond and the crew guys at JR Motorsports though; they stayed till 11 at night on the pull-down rig working on this truck and I really appreciate it. We’re going in the right direction, but we just need a little bit more.”
Cameron Hayley came home third for ThorSport Racing on team owner Duke Thorson’s birthday and just five days after a vicious fire ravaged nearly half of their Sandusky, Ohio shop, with teammate Rhodes notching a career-best fourth. Reddick rounded out the top five after fading on the last restart.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to action on June 25 with the Drivin’ for Linemen 200 from Gateway Motorsports Park.
RESULTS: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series; Speediatrics 200; Iowa Speedway; June 18, 2016
- William Byron
- Cole Custer
- Cameron Hayley
- Ben Rhodes
- Tyler Reddick
- Daniel Suarez
- Ben Kennedy
- Matt Crafton
- Christopher Bell
- Johnny Sauter
- Timothy Peters
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Spencer Gallagher
- German Quiroga
- Daniel Hemric
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.
Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 22-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
Email Jacob at: speed77radio@gmail.com
Follow on Twitter: @Speed77Radio or @JacobSeelman77
Email Race Chaser Online: news@racechaseronline.com
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