NASCAR has penalized two of the Cup Series teams after pre-race inspection at Iowa Speedway on Saturday.
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According to the sanctioning body, the No. 60 Ford Mustang of RFK Racing and the No. 34 Ford Mustang of Front Row Motorsports both failed inspection two times. They passed on the third attempt.
Failing two times means that both teams will lose pit stall selection for Sunday's race at the short track (3:30 p.m. ET on USA). Additionally, both teams will lose a crew member for the remainder of the weekend.
The No. 34 team of Front Row loses car chief Joe Marra. The No. 60 team of RFK Racing loses car chief Jerry Cook.
With the cars passing inspection on the third attempt, both Ryan Preece and Todd Gilliland had the opportunity to qualify at Iowa Speedway.
Gilliland, the winner of the $1 million In-Season Challenge, qualified 17th. He will line up next to Carson Hocevar on the ninth row.
Preece qualified 35th on a day when the entire RFK Racing roster struggled. Chris Buescher qualified 27th while team owner Brad Keselowski crashed after posting the fourth-fastest time on the day.
The qualifying struggles occurred after Preece met with media members. He reflected on scoring his first national NASCAR win at Iowa Speedway back in 2017, and he said that he felt the No. 60 team would be a threat at Iowa and the other short tracks remaining in the regular season.
After all, he finished fifth at Iowa Speedway last season, and he won the pole at Richmond. His goal at this point is to use the short tracks to get back above The Chase cutline after struggling in the months of May and June.
"I mean Iowa, for sure, Richmond, New Hampshire are all places that I would think we should be a threat," Preece explained. "We definitely, after Indy, we made sure we put a lot of effort into coming to Iowa, and and I feel like it's going to translate."
