McReynolds breaks 3-year drought with K&N win at Iowa Speedway

NEWTON — For three long, agonizing years, NASCAR K&N Pro Series driver Brandon McReynolds crisscrossed the country racing in various series and coming up short of returning to Victory Lane.

His last win had come in 2012 at an ARCA race in Talladega, and the time in between had been hard on the driver and his family. But on Saturday night at Iowa Speedway, he swept away all those close calls and worries about wondering when the next win would come.

The son of legendary NASCAR Sprint Cup Series crew chief and FOX commentator Larry McReynolds passed William Byron for the lead on a restart late in the Casey's 150 and cruised to the win.

'It was definitely hard-fought, that's for sure. Me and (Byron) were going back and forth for whoever could have clean air,' McReynolds said. 'Coming across the finish line, I just thanked (my car owner) for not firing me.

'All the pressure, all the time, me making mistakes, sometimes us as a team failing led up to tonight. It's really fitting we're here.'

The weight of such a long winless drought was lifted, and it was evident in McReynolds' emotions after the race.

He'd heard about the shoutout he got from Mike Joy on the FOX broadcast of the Sprint All-Star race, and fought back tears when asked about talking to his dad about the win. The family support he received when he was wondering why things weren't going the way he'd hoped got him through it all, he said.

'I'm really looking forward to talking to him (Larry McReynolds) and my fiancé and my whole family,' McReynolds said. 'The family I come from is die-hard racing. I don't know what I would do if this didn't work out for me. So to come here and be successful and get a win with my team behind me, it's not just big for me. It's big for Larry McReynolds, Linda my mom, my two sisters and Lauren (my fiancé) that have really stood behind me outside of my team, when things were going bad.

'It's cool. It's really neat. It's been a long time coming. Talladega (in 2012) was way too long ago, I know that. I enjoy making my dad proud.'

McReynolds started second in the K&N Pro Series East and West combination race to East regular Byron, and apart from a short stint in the first half of the race, ran second to the HScott Motorsports driver for the majority of the race.

But after tracking Byron down in the second half, he took the lead on a restart with around 15 laps to go. A caution with eight laps remaining for a hard wreck from dirt track standout Rico Abreu put the red flag out, and gave all the drivers a little break on the front stretch to think about how they wanted to attack the final shootout for the win.

Maybe too much time.

'It's a fine line. You can't overthink things, but you've got to be smart,' McReynolds said. 'My spotter and (crew chief) do a good job of keeping me calm and focused. Some of that is age. Coming up on 24, I've lost a lot more races than I've won that way. Hopefully we've turned the corner and come back around on some of that.

'Just tried to stay calm more than anything and not get too psyched out. I can be a head case sometimes, so you've got to keep your wits about you.'

The wait is over for the 23 year-old, and the mixture of relief and pure joy was evident.

Like any driver who breaks a streak or gets a big win, the confidence boost his first in the K&N Pro Series gives him a jolt he needed to reassure he's in the right place and on the right track.

'All along I knew I could drive,' McReynolds said. 'There's a reason they kept me in it because (they) believed in me and we wanted to show our sponsors, our fans, the media; everyone involved in the sport that we could do it together.

'We've got to enjoy it tonight and have a good time, but we've got to look toward Shasta (Speedway). It's a confidence booster, but it wouldn't be if it wasn't for the whole NAPA team staying behind me.'

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com