The Cup Series debuted at the 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway with a brand-new repave for the inaugural Iowa Corn 350. But NASCAR’s active highest victor on short tracks, Denny Hamlin, has faced some mysterious circumstances in his first outing on a facility that has been christened, the “world’s fastest short track.”

The #11 wheelman is part of a certain demographic of drivers in Sunday’s field who have never run a single lap on Iowa’s pavement (past or present). That fact was apparent in Stage 1 as Denny’s Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE pummeled down the running order to go down a lap during the 34th rotation on the Newton oval.

Iowa’s mysterious lap loss for Joe Gibbs Racing’s #11 Toyota

In an update on social media by Performance Racing Network (PRN), Hamlin allegedly told his crew over the radio, “It’s like the tires are on backward.” The tweet concludes with PRN informing viewers that Denny Hamlin “reports that he is plowing” his vehicle.

The JGR veteran finished P34 in the first stage as the lowest-finishing Joe Gibbs car, starting his race from P12. But on the other end of the spectrum, even stage-winner Ryan Blaney appeared to be facing problems with Iowa’s unpredictable tire falloff. As per Jeff Gluck of The Athletic, Team Penske’s #12 also said “he’s trying to save his stuff” before eventually passing Kyle Larson for his second stage win of the year.

Blaney has been a former champion at Iowa, back when the Xfinity & the Truck Series ran regular races between 2009 and 2019. Hence, the new partial repave on turns 2 & 4 could have some hand in the tire mystery plaguing the short track. However, Saturday’s Xfinity race was equally puzzling, where cars kept losing their rubber in freak incidents throughout the day. Many have since raised an issue with Goodyear, for bringing an insufficient tire to NASCAR’s debut at the Hawkeye State.

Nevertheless, without an official statement from Goodyear, those speculations are all that and nothing more. On the other hand, the official Twitter handle of Goodyear Racing informs viewers that “NASCAR Cup teams will have 10 sets of Goodyear Eagles for their 350-lap, 306.25-mile race at @iowaspeedway.”

Goodyear’s Fast Facts for Iowa also explains that the tire setups used for the Cup race will feature the same setups used at North Wilkesboro for the All-Star race held last month. That might bring some hope of familiarity for all 36 drivers registered for Sunday’s race.

Can Denny Hamlin bounce back from the Sonoma DNF?

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But after restarting stage 2 following an extended pit stop to make “major changes to the car,” as per Jordan Bianchi, the #11 driver complained about his car being “still really tight.” Moreover, Hamlin went a lap down one more time in Stage 2 as Ryan Blaney maintained his Iowa dominance in signature fashion, running in the front two spots for most of the race. The hindrances could cost Denny Hamlin heavily after registering a DNF early last weekend in Sonoma.

Considering his battle with pole-winner Kyle Larson (safely running in the top 5 as of Stage 1) at the top of the points table, the #11 team must work its way around Denny’s tire issues rapidly at NASCAR Iowa.