Brandon McReynolds celebrates in Victory Lane at Iowa Speedway after winning the Casey’s General Store 150 Saturday night. Photo – Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
Brandon McReynolds is our guest on Fan4Racing Fan2Fan NASCAR & Race Talk on Monday, May 18, 2015 at 8:40 pm ET. Call 714-202-9918 or tweet @Fan4RacingSite, @Sal_Sigala any questions or comments during the LIVE broadcast.
McReynolds’ First Career Win Comes In K&N Pro Combo Event At Iowa
Keeping the trend of new winners at Iowa Speedway intact, Brandon McReynolds became the 12th different winner in 12 meetings at Iowa between the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West.
The soon-to-be 24-year-old driver from Mooresville, North Carolina, picked up his first NASCAR K&N Pro Series win Saturday night in the Casey’s General Stores 150. McReynolds, driving the No. 16 NAPA Auto Parts car for Bill McAnally Racing, became the second West driver in 12 races to win the combination race at Iowa. It was McReynolds’ 34th career K&N Pro Series start.
“I knew who could get out in clean air would be tough to beat,” said McReynolds. “Once we took the air off the 9 [Byron], I knew we were in good shape.”
McReynolds joins a list of drivers including Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Brandon Jones Cole Custer and Corey LaJoie who won at Iowa during their rise up the NASCAR ranks.McReynolds, the son of NASCAR on FOX announcer Larry McReynolds, is an alum of the NASCAR Next program — an industry initiative designed to spotlight the sport’s rising stars.
For most of the night it looked like William Byron would grab his second win of 2015 in convincing fashion. Byron finished second and gets the credit for a victory as the highest finishing NASCAR K&N Pro Series East driver. It is the second win in four races for the 17-year-old, who won the Sukup “First in the Field” award as the fastest qualifier earlier in the day. Byron remains as the series points leader.
“It’s a little disappointing,” said Byron. “We had a good car all day but at least we got the East win. It’s still disappointing.”
Ronnie Bassett Jr. finished third, followed by Jesse Little and McReynolds’ Bill McAnally Racing rookie teammate Christopher Bell, rounding out the top-five.
JJ Haley was sixth overall, followed by Noah Gragson, Scott Heckert, Kyle Benjamin and Austin Hill to round out the top-ten finishers.
Four of the top-ten at Iowa — Byron, Little, Benjamin and Hill — were recently named to the 2015-16 NASCAR Next class.
The Casey’s General Store 150 will air on NBCSN Thursday, May 21, at 11 p.m. CT after the NHL playoff game between Chicago and Anaheim.