On paper, a NASCAR Cup Series short track race with 12 cautions, 10 of which for something other than the two stage breaks, should see quite a few DNFs. Yet at Iowa Speedway, that was surprisingly not the case.
All 37 cars that started the 350-lap race around the four-turn, 0.894-mile (1.439-kilometer) Newton, Iowa oval also finished it. That was bad news for Joey Gase and the No. 66 Garage 66 team.
It's no secret that Garage 66, the Carl Long-owned team formally recognized in the Cup garage as MBM Motorsports, don't have the pace of the frontrunners or even the mid-field when they make their select Cup starts. So despite staying clean in a race that saw 12 cautions, Gase finished in 37th (last) on Sunday afternoon.
It was Gase's first Cup start of the year, and it was his first with MBM since 2019. Unfortunately, it was also the team's worst non-DNF result of 2025.
Josh Bilicki to compete for Garage 66 at Watkins Glen
Garage 66 have made 10 appearances so far this season in points-paying races. They failed to qualify for the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway and had five DNFs in eight starts before Gase's Iowa start, so Gase keeping it clean was actually a pretty big plus at his home race track.
For the first time since the final three races of the 2024 season, Garage 66 are set to make three straight Cup Series appearances, and this weekend at Watkins Glen International, they have turned back to Josh Bilicki.
Bilicki, who leads the team in starts this season, made his fourth and most recent start of the year in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway two weeks ago, and three weeks before that, he delivered the team their best finish in five years with a 21st place effort on the streets of Chicago, Illinois. Bilicki and the team will be hoping for similar success in the final road course race of the regular season.
The No. 66 Ford is one of four part-time non-chartered (open) cars on the entry list, so it is locked into the 40-car field. The other three are the No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet, the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet, and the No. 87 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, which are set to be driven by J.J. Yeley, Katherine Legge, and Connor Zilisch, respectively.
Tune in to USA Network at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 10 for the live broadcast of the Go Bowling at The Glen from Watkins Glen International. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action from the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series regular season's final road course event!