Frustrating day at Iowa Speedway for Cassill, Gase

NEWTON - After final practice on Saturday, both Landon Cassill and Joey Gase were cautiously optimistic about the way their cars would race.

The Cedar Rapids natives had different reasons to feel that way, but both clearly felt there was reason to feel good about how Sunday's 3M 250 at Iowa Speedway would turn out. Cassill thought he and his JD Motorsports crew had found something for race runs that would give him a good chance at a top-10. Gase and his Jimmy Means Racing team were trying out 'pig tail” springs for the first time on a short track.

Neither team nor driver got what they wanted out of the day, though. Cassill ended up 20th, two laps down and Gase was 27th, six laps down.

'We just never had rear grip all day at all,” Cassill said. 'I don't know if we made improvements to the front of the car in practice that never got any grip to the back of the car or what. It just was extremely loose all day.”

The frustration for Cassill was evident after the race, given his and his team's expectation to run well at short tracks like the 7/8-mile speedway in Newton.

His car Sunday was the same one he finished 10th with at Richmond International Raceway earlier this season. Last year, in the same scenario, the finishes mirrored each other. It just didn't translate this time.

'This is a really hard track to get ahold of and doesn't have a lot of grip,” Cassill said. 'I just was on edge on the right rear all day. I could never be aggressive with the car around other cars.”

For Gase, the frustration of the day didn't come from the experimental springs, rather a mysterious carburetor or engine issue with about 100 laps to go.

Gase had been running in 28th, two laps down, and was fortunate enough to have all sticker tires for this race - something that's exceedingly rare for his team - after his fifth-place finish at Talladega. The engine issue ruined any chance to get a better finish.

'The spring experiment worked out great,” Gase said. 'With about 100 to go either we got a piece of dirt in our carburetor or the float went bad. It was missing really bad.

'I don't know how that happened or what (exactly) happened. We were going to have a good run. We finished 27th and probably could've been 23rd or 24th. Just one of those days.”

The silver lining for Gase is in how the car handled by using the 'pig tail” springs and a few other adjustments his team made to the car.

Because of that, he can't wait for another shot at a stand-alone race at Iowa Speedway in August.

'We were running really good. And at the end the handling was really good, I just couldn't go up off the corner until the carburetor would clear out,” Gase said. 'It was encouraging. I'm ready to get back here in August.

'We had all sticker sets besides one today. We had one set left at the end, but didn't want to waste it and saved it for August.”

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