William Byron continued his streak of successes in 2016 by winning the Speediatrics 200 at Iowa Speedway, his third win in nine career starts. Unlike his other victories at Kansas and Texas, Byron had the dominant truck this time, starting fifth and leading 107 laps. Cole Custer finished second in his JR Motorsports Chevrolet, while ThorSport drivers Cameron Hayley and Ben Rhodes took third and fourth, respectively. Rounding out the top-five was Brad Keselowski Racing driver Tyler Reddick, who led 37 laps.
With this win Byron moves to second in the Camping World Truck Series points behind Matt Crafton, who has an 11-point cushion. But with this being the first year of the CWTS Chase system, based off of the Sprint Cup playoff format, Byron currently holds the top seed in the Chase with his three wins.
Custer’s first race with new Crew Chief Marcus Richmond paid off, taking the lead on lap 188 and hanging on for three laps until Byron took over the lead for good on lap 191. Said Custer of his race, “For the first 10 laps or so, the others were probably better than us on four tires. After that it kind of equaled out. I thought I had them there when I took the lead. I can’t thank Marcus and everyone enough. They worked their tails off all weekend. I really appreciate that. I think we’re going in the right direction.”
Custer sits 11th in points, 65 points out of first. His runner-up finish is his best result of 2016, previously trumping his season-best of fifth at Dover in May.
Another notable in the top-five was fellow rookie Ben Rhodes, who took his No. 41 ThorSport to a fourth-place finish after contending for the lead on the lap 188 restart. Rhodes and third-place finisher Cameron Hayley were a pair of bright points in the week for the ThorSport Racing organization.
On Monday a fire demolished the shop the organization operates out of, causing damage to several trucks and equipment. The organization is one of the longest-running teams in the CWTS, and with two trucks in the top-five at Iowa and a third truck in eighth, the team will take this momentum and carry it to Gateway while the team continues the process of rebuilding.
