The final weekend of racing at Iowa Speedway took place over the weekend. It started on Friday Night with the Sandvik Coromant 150 presented by Cline Tools wheere it was Jeff Choquette from South Beach, Florida taking the win.
On Saturday though it was the return of the NASCAR Nationwide Series for the U.S. Cellular 250 presented by Enlist Weed Control System. Elliott Sadler would get the pole, Trevor Baybe would take the lead from Sadler though on lap 1. Sam Hornish Jr would make the pass and take the lead from Bayne on lap 13.
The first race caution came out on lap 24 for debris in turn 4. Hornish Jr, who was filling in for Brad Keselowski would remain out front until the next caution on lap 49. This caution came out for Jamie Dick getting in to the wall in turn 4 and then running into Eric McClure.
The leaders would all make pit stops which would hand the lead over to Michael McDowell. MCDoweell would lead until lap 69 when Carl Edwards would get by and lead. Edwards would continue to lead until lap 100 when Ricky Stenhouse Jr would get by but a lap later the caution came out again. This caution was for Mike Wallace im turn 2.
Again the leaders would pit so the lead would be handed to Jeremy Clements, Clements would lead 2 laps and then pit himself and hand the lead over to David Mayhew. When the race got going on lap 106, Mayhew would get passed by Carl Edwards.
Carl Edwards would lead until lap 154 when Ricky Stenhouse Jr took the lead, shortly after that the caution came out for debris in turn 4. Stenhouse Jr would give the lead back to Carl Ewards after pit stops. Edwards would remain out front until lap 185 when another caution came out for debris on the frontstretch.
Mayhew would get the lead on lap 186 but it was Des Moines Native Michael Annett would hold the lead until lap 187. Elliott Sadler would take the lead away from Annett on the restart.
The final race caution came out on lap 220 for Blake Koch hitting the turn 2 wall and then hitting the inside wall on the backstretch. On the restart on lap 227, Sadler would remain out front but 2 laps later he would be passed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
It looked as if Stenshouse was pulling away to the win but with a few laps to go, he began to experience some troubles with his Ford Mustang and on the last lap we would find out why. Coming off turn 4, Stenhouse would see the motor expire and lay oil on the racing surface and Carl Edwards would try to avoid him but the cloud of smoke and oil on the track forced Edwards to run into Stenhouse and push him across the line for the win. Both cars were damage but it was Stenhouse taking the win, Edwards 2nd. Elliott Sadler, Josh Wise and Aric Almirola rounding out the top 5. Reed Sorenson, Kenny Wallace, Steve Wallace, Michael McDowell and David Mayhew finish 6th through 10th.
That put an end to the racing action at Iowa Speedway for 2011, check out http://www.iowaspeedway.com/ for the 2012 schedule once its figured out.
