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Five things to watch in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Iowa

The NASCAR Xfinity Series makes its first of two stops this season at Iowa Speedway on Saturday night for the American Ethanol E15 150, the series’ 14th race of the 2017 season.

Elliott Sadler, JR Motorsports Chevrolet
Elliott Sadler, JR Motorsports Chevrolet
Elliott Sadler, JR Motorsports Chevrolet
Cole Custer Haas Automation Ford Mustang
Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota
Ben Kennedy, GMS Racing Chevrolet
Richard Petty, Regan Smith, Richard Petty Motorsports Ford

Here are five things to watch for in Saturday night’s race:

  • Current Xfinity Series points leader Elliott Sadler will make his 800th NASCAR national series start in Saturday night’s race, the 25th driver to reach that milestone. Sadler’s starts are composed of 437 in the Cup series, 342 in Xfinity and 20 in Trucks. Sadler’s first career start came on July 7, 1995, in what was then then the Busch Series in a family-owned car at South Boston, Va. In 12 Xfinity starts at Iowa, he has three poles, one win, seven top-five and 12 top-10 finishes.

  • Series rookie Cole Custer is looking to earn his fifth consecutive top-10 finish of the season, quite a change from the start of his season which featured three finishes of 32nd or worse in the first seven races. Custer is currently third in the rookie standings behind William Byron and Daniel Hemric. Custer has seven previous starts at Iowa (three in Trucks and four in the K&N Pro Series).

  • Truck series regular Christopher Bell is entered in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Toyota this weekend, making his second series start. His series debut came at Charlotte last month where he rallied from an early spin and finished fourth.

  • Ben Kennedy, great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr.’s grandson, will make his second series start of the season with Richard Childress Racing. His lone previous start with the team earlier this year at Talladega, Ala., produced a top-five finish.

  • NASCAR veteran Regan Smith will make his television booth debut Saturday for Fox Sports 1’s live coverage of the Iowa Xfinity race.

 

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