NEWTON, Iowa — Ryan Blaney had his concerns heading into the final laps Sunday night in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway.

The problem was, he didn’t hear his crew chief’s reassurance.

There was no need to worry, though, with the defending series champion holding on for his first victory of the season and a spot in the playoffs.

Blaney seemed in control of the race but was worried about fuel a couple of weeks after running out on the final lap while leading at World Wide Technology Raceway. It’s why crew chief Jonathan Hassler came on the radio with fewer than 10 laps to go in this race to let him know he was good on fuel.

“I don’t even remember him saying that,” Blaney said. “I figured we were (OK). But I don’t remember him saying that.”

“I wanted to make sure he knew the whole situation,” Hassler said. “Sometimes I forget he doesn’t know what I know. So I just try to communicate as much as I can so he knows what’s going on.”

Blaney led four times for a career-high 201 laps, finishing 0.716 seconds ahead of William Byron for his 11th Cup victory.

“Ryan and those guys were really good,” Byron said. “He had a really good car. He was up front, contending a lot.”

Blaney regained the lead on Lap 263 after taking just two tires on a caution-flag pit stop. He led the rest of the way, getting through lapped traffic as Byron tried to close.

It was the decision to take two tires, on a weekend when tire wear was a concern for the Cup Series and Xfinity Series cars, that worried Hassler.

“There were not a lot of guys on two tires,” Hassler said. “At some point those guys are going to be a little bit better than you are. So, yeah, really nervous.”

Blaney, whose mother, Lisa, is from Chariton, Iowa, won in front of a sellout crowd of an estimated 40,000 fans that included 80 of his friends and family.

It was fitting the first Cup Series race at the 0.875-mile track went to a Team Penske driver — Penske cars have won seven IndyCar Series races and three NASCAR Xfinity Series races at the track.

“I think, as a whole company, we do a good job of these places we go to for the first time,” said Blaney, who also has wins at the track in the Xfinity and Truck series.

But Blaney, who started on the outside of the front row, admitted he had concerns about how good his car would be for the race.

“Friday, I didn’t feel very good,” he said. “I wasn’t very confident in the speed in our car. And we really went to work — we got a lot better qualifying to the race and got better through the night tonight. And I think we’re great at some points of the night. The last few runs were phenomenal. “

Chase Elliott was third. Christopher Bell, who had to start from the back of the field in a backup car after crashing during practice Friday, was fourth. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who like Blaney took two tires on the final pit stop, finished fifth.

Joey Logano finished sixth. Rookie Josh Berry, who led 32 laps, was seventh, followed by Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski.

Kyle Larson, the series points leader and pole-sitter for the race, led 81 laps and won the second stage, but hit the wall on Lap 219 after contact from behind by Suarez. Larson had surged into the middle of a three-wide jam, with Suarez to his left and Keselowski to his right, when the contact happened. Larson finished 34th in the 36-car field.

Getting a Cup Series race was an accomplishment for the track, located 40 miles from Des Moines. The facility opened in 2006 and was on the schedules of NASCAR’s Xfinity Series and Truck Series from 2009-19. NASCAR has owned the track since 2013.

NEWTON, Iowa — Sam Mayer knew winning the overtime restart of Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway was all about choosing the right line.

And Mayer knew the top line was best on a track where everyone has been getting a weekend education on where to run.

Mayer took the lead from Riley Herbst on the restart to pick up his second win of the season, and sixth of his career.

Mayer, who led 47 laps in the 250-lap race, pulled ahead on the restart after John Hunter Nemechek‘s crash six laps from the finish, getting clear of Herbst coming out of the second turn to win by .146 seconds.

“I knew it was really, really important to have the top lane and have the momentum coming off of it, too,” Mayer said. “So I did pretty much all I could to get the best launch I could and to optimize Turn 2. Once I was clear, I knew my car was definitely better than the others close by. So I knew once I got clear, it was smooth sailing.”

The way Meyer launched, though, bothered Herbst. Herbst was unhappy with Mayer after the checkered flag, bumping Mayer on the back straightaway and cutting Mayer’s left tire, a fitting end to a day when tire troubles caused plenty of problems.

“The guy who won absolutely brooms us in (turns) 1 and 2, that was frustrating,” Herbst said. “And for him to door me going down the front straightaway on the green-white-checkered, that was a little bit frustrating. But all in all, it was fun racing with him on the green-white-checkered.”

“I knew immediately it was 50-50, either, ‘I hate you,’ or, ‘Congratulations,'” Mayer said. “I think that we know the answer to that, unfortunately.”

Mayer acknowledged that he got into Herbst earlier in the race.

“We were literally fighting for four feet of asphalt all around the track,” Mayer said. “I did all I could do to get there, and I overstepped it a bit. We both came back at the end and had a shot (at the win), which was really cool.”

Asked if he would have some payback for Mayer in a future race, Herbst said, “I wouldn’t know if I owe him one. He’s going to call me this week and apologize and show me his Superman photo or whatever it is he does.”

Corey Heim finished third. Sammy Smith and Sheldon Creed rounded out the top five. Series points leader Cole Custer finished sixth.

Saturday’s race marked the return of the series to Iowa Speedway. The series had raced at the track from 2009-19, but returned as part of the weekend that includes Sunday’s inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at the .875-mile oval, which received a partial repaving in the turns in the spring.

There were 14 lead changes among nine drivers, which eliminated some worries that drivers wouldn’t be able to pass on the new surface.

But the race was slowed by nine caution flags, most caused by tire troubles similar to those that caused problems for drivers during Friday’s Cup Series practice. AJ Allmendinger, Jeb Burton, Jesse Love and Justin Allgaier had crashes after their right front tires blew out. Austin Hill was running in second place when he crashed on lap 217 after his left front went flat. Nemechek crashed with six laps left when a left front tire went down after contact with Creed a few laps earlier.

Chandler Smith won the first two stages, leading 131 laps. But Smith slid back through the field after the start of the final stage and couldn’t recover, finishing eighth.

Shane van Gisbergen, who came in having won the last two races in the series, struggled all weekend and finished 34th. Van Gisbergen started at the back of the field after going to a backup car because of a crash during Friday’s practice. He was lapped early in the race, and then on lap 86 crashed coming out of Turn 2 and was out of the race.

NEWTON, Iowa — Kyle Larson was hoping for a rainout of Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Iowa Speedway.

His wish wasn’t granted, but in the end, it didn’t matter. Larson will start from the front of the field in Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol, the inaugural Cup race at Iowa Speedway (7 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Under the metric qualifying system, a canceled session would have put Larson, last Sunday’s winner at Sonoma Raceway, on the pole for the debut race. Instead, the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet had to earn his fourth Busch Light Pole Award of the season and the 20th of his career.

The last driver to make a qualifying run, Larson covered the 0.875-mile distance in 23.084 seconds (136.458 mph), edging Ryan Blaney (136.311 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.025 seconds.

“It was challenging, but it wasn’t as challenging as I thought it would be,” said Larson, who had the benefit of watching 35 other drivers make attempts ahead of him. “It helps going out last. It helps being able to watch everybody.

“But I was hoping for rain.”

Blaney felt he left some speed on the table during his two-lap run.

“I wish I could have picked up on the second lap a little more,” said the reigning series champion, who added that he missed Turns 3 and 4 slightly on his second circuit.

With the qualifying session delayed for 45 minutes because of track-drying efforts from a storm that blew through during lunchtime, drivers ran only one round, with the top five drivers from Group A and the top five from Group B making up the top 10 starting positions.

The Group B drivers ran second and had a clear advantage, with all of the top five starting positions going to drivers from that group. Josh Berry (135.916 mph) will start third, followed by William Byron (135.595 mph) and Brad Keselowski (135.338 mph).

Chase Briscoe led Group A at 133.046 mph and will start sixth, followed by Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell (though Bell will drop to the rear in a backup car after crashing in Friday’s practice).

The remainder of the field is ordered by group in alternating numbers. Joey Logano, sixth in Group B, starts 11th beside Denny Hamlin, sixth-fastest in Group A.