Iowa was full of excitement and ‘hell yeah’ moments! Ryan Blaney won the race and also led the final 88 laps. With this victory, the Team Penske driver has won all three NASCAR national series at Iowa Speedway. However, Kyle Larson also looked optimistic at the Iowa Corn 350. After securing the pole at 136.458 mph, Larson edged out Ryan Blaney by a mere 0.025 seconds. And some might blame Daniel Suarez for Larson’s loss. What happened?

How did Kyle Larson’s bad day at Iowa help Chase Elliott?

The Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 car was securely in the top spot during lap 200. But then a few cars surged past him; Chris Buescher took the lead, while Josh Berry, Todd Gilliland, and Brad Keselowski moved past Kyle Larson, pushing him to the fifth position. But that drop-in spot was slated to be his final in the race, as a violent crash ensued.

Trackhouse Racing driver Daniel Suarez hooked Larson’s left side. That knock spun Kyle Larson’s car, which fumbled and hit the outer wall. In the process, he collected Denny Hamlin‘s No. 11 car as well. Burning rubber together, both the #5 Chevrolet and the #11 Toyota cars incurred significant damage and exuded smoke. Larson and Hamlin both reported issues with the right-front toe link.

In the meantime, Chase Elliott grabbed the Hendrick spotlight in Kyle Larson’s absence. As Larson dropped positions, Elliott snatched the point lead. Journalist Matt Weaver shared an update on the situation about how this greatly helps the #9 driver. “Chase Elliott stands to be the big benefactor in this from a regular season championship standpoint. And while he’s only won once so far this year, those 15 playoff points are the equivalent of three extra wins.”

Elliott, whose starting lineup was in Row 5, finished in third position.

So Kyle Larson was thrown out of contention. His crew chief Cliff Daniels said on the radio, “We’re going to the garage and work on the car.” Additionally, NASCAR slapped Larson’s pit team with a two-lap penalty for having too many men over the wall. Such a dramatic decline for the race leader.

Hence Kyle Larson collected frenemy Denny Hamlin in his misery while losing his dominance to teammate Chase Elliott. Eventually, as the race wrapped up, Elliott prevailed. He ended up at the top of the driver rankings leaderboard.

Chase Elliott let slip a personal strategy: “The trick is…”

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After Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson faded away, Ryan Blaney emerged as the Iowa winner. Hendrick drivers William Byron and Chase Elliott trailed closely behind him.

This year is faring extremely well for the No. 9 driver compared to last year’s injury-laden misery. Besides snapping out of his 42-race dry spell at Texas on April 14, Elliott got his third podium finish at Iowa. Now Elliott holds the top position on the driver rankings, which Larson’s wreck handed to him.

Chase Elliott harbors a personal hack for wading through 2024, and he shared that in a post-race interaction with NASCAR.com. “The way this playoff situation is now, you want to be good in those last 10 — and really like the last five.” He added, “The trick is being good enough to get you to like the Round of 8, and in your mind, not be spectacular yet — and then really try to be spectacular in those last three or four weeks. So it’s really just about having a solid enough base to get you through there and then really try to hit home runs in those last few if you can.”

This trick seems to be working pretty well for Elliott, holding 591 points. We are at the edge of our seats to see the resurgent Hendrick driver visit Victory Lane again.