Saturday at Iowa Speedway was big for the underdogs, as driver/owner Ryan Sieg earned his first-ever pole as a NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series driver.
Driving the No. 39 RSS Racing Chevrolet, Sieg went to the top of the charts with a 23.966s lap at Iowa, 0.064s clear of Ross Chastain in second. Chastain led a fleet of JR Motorsports cars, with Carson Kvapil third, Rajah Caruth fourth, and Justin Allgaier fifth.
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“It’s been a long time,” said Sieg as the small team celebrated. “Everything seems to be clicking. We’ve been working super hard at the shop, trying to come together with the Haas Factory Team and the alliance. It’s finally coming together for us. And it’s a special day as it’s my mom’s birthday, so this is a nice payoff right here for her and I. So hopefully we stay out front all day, and we get to Victory Lane in our SciAps Chevrolet.”
The difference came in Sieg’s momentum through Turns 3/4, nailing the exit in a way none could match. Several drivers drew even with him down the backstretch, but quickly faded through the final set of corners.
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Sieg didn’t think it was a pole lap while behind the wheel, and wasn’t even sure what he did do different to be that far ahead. “I really don’t — I thought it was just an okay lap. I was tight, actually, at the exit, but I couldn’t roll the middle and get into the gas like I thought i needed to. But hell, it was good enough to get pole here in Iowa.”
The 39-year-old has been racing in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series since 2013, and Saturday marks his 423rd career start. In all that time, he has never started on the front row before.
As he said in his pole-winning interview, the next milestone is to reach Victory Lane. Sieg has never won a NASCAR O’Reilly race before either, even with five runner-up finishes and nearly 500 laps led. One of those runner-up finishes came right here at Iowa in 2017.
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The race is set to take place Saturday afternoon, with the green flag flying just after 5pm EST.
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