Joey Gase picks up third straight top-25 at Iowa Speedway

NEWTON — After qualifying was complete on Saturday, Cedar Rapids native Joey Gase was upbeat about his No. 52 Jimmy Means Racing Chevy for Sunday's NASCAR Xfinity Series American Ethanol 250 at Iowa Speedway.

His 26th-place qualifying effort was indicative, he said, of positive changes his team had made to the car, and he was hoping for a top-25 or even a top-20 finish on Sunday. If not for a loose lug nut midway through the race, the latter very well could've happened.

Gase ended up 25th at the end, collecting his third straight top-25 finish this season and fourth such finish in his last five races. Gase had six top-25s in all of 2015.

'I'm happy we got a top-25, but we had a much better car than we had pit stops today,' Gase said. 'They weren't very fast, which cost us a lot of spots on restarts, then left a tire loose and we had to come in under green and cost use two or three laps. Our finish should've been much better, but at least the Iowa Donor Network car got a top 25 finish out of it.'

On top of being worn out from a hot day on track, Gase's frustration with pit road miscues held his attention after the race.

But in a certain way, being frustrated with 25th was something in which the 23-year-old could see positivity. He said his cars are faster when they get to the track than they've ever been, and it makes everything easier.

'That's a good way to look at it,' Gase said. 'I think we would've had close to a top-20 run today if it wasn't the problems on pit road. Our guys at the shop and in the garage are doing a good job getting our car better each week. We're making gains, that's for sure.

'Overall, we come to the track a lot closer, which means we don't have to make as big of swings. It's a lot more fine-tuning, which helps a lot.'

With an off week next week and Daytona coming up after that, Gase can carry the optimism of the last few races forward. His four top-25s in five races is something of note for his Jimmy Means Racing team, but the streak could've been even better without being involved in a wreck not of his doing at Talladega and losing a transmission at Charlotte.

There's also potential he'll be able to defend his Late Model win at Hawkeye Downs next week, too, but that's not set in stone just yet.

'Daytona can be a lot of fun, and it's a big equalizer with the draft. You never know what can happen there,' Gase said. 'I always look forward to those superspeedway races. We have a different car than we had in February and a different car than we had at Talladega. The Talladega car was a good car, but it got beat up and we just didn't have enough time to fix it. The car we're taking is the car we got fifth with last year at (Talladega). Hopefully it'll be good.

'We have a couple possibilities that might prohibit being (at Hawkeye Downs) on Friday, but I'd love to be out there if I could.'

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