CUP: Neither propane nor propane accessories lift Gase out of last place in Iowa

Written By Brock Beard

by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

PHOTO: Garage 66 & MBM Motorsports, @MBMMotorsports

Joey Gase picked up the 11th last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 at the Iowa Speedway when his #66 King of the Hill on Hulu Ford finished under power, completing 240 of 250 laps.

The finish, which came in Gase’s 92nd series start, was his first of the season and first in a Cup Series race since October 31, 2021 at Martinsville, 132 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 43rd where the car finished under power, the 71st for the #66, and the 761st for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 58th for a car still running, the 96th for the #66, and the 1,071st for Ford.

Sunday’s race marked only the third Cup start for Gase since he was last featured here in 2021. For much of that time, he’s been more focused on the ownership side of the sport. It was in 2022 that he joined forces with fellow driver Patrick Emerling to form Emerling-Gase Motorsports. In that time, the two drivers have since parted ways, opening the door for new investor Scott Osteen, formerly of the Floridian Motorsports team in the Truck Series. Gase has run less than half the XFINITY schedule since then, opening the door for several drivers to make a start in the series. In that time, Gase has been particularly fast at Talladega, where in the last two spring races he was spun out of a Top Five short of the finish, then this past April qualified an impressive 4th.

For Iowa, Gase’s home track, he secured sponsorship from Hulu to mark this week’s release of Mike Judge’s popular animated series “King of the Hill.” The patriotic paint scheme featuring the show’s characters would adorn not only Garage 66’s #66 car on Sunday, but Gase’s own #53 entry in Saturday’s XFINITY race, which finished 27th. Gase would wear the same uniform for both races – a uniform designed by Matrix Apparel that featured the fictional Alamo Beer branding along with a custom uniform bag with a picture of Gase drawn in the show’s style.

On the Cup side of the Iowa weekend, Gase ranked slowest of the 37 entrants in practice with a lap of 25.103 seconds (125.483mph), which he turned on his 20th and final lap of the session. This was over a second off the pace of the next-slowest car of Joey Logano at 24.033 seconds (131.070mph). The team ran slower in qualifying: their time of 25.173 seconds (125.134mph) was more than two seconds off the next-slowest car driven by Cody Ware at 23.633 seconds (133.288mph).

Still, Gase would line up 36th on the grid for Sunday as Kyle Busch became the only driver to not take time. Busch had been involved in a brutal wreck in practice where his #8 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet hooked right at Turn 1 and slammed the wall with the right-front. The team set to work on the backup car, which interestingly was wrapped in the sponsor’s patriotic scheme from Dover in place of the originally scheduled black-and-red. Busch incurred a redundant tail-end penalty for the backup car, soon to be joined by Noah Gragson, whose #4 Rasmussen Air & Gas Energy Ford surrendered 31st on the grid due to unapproved adjustments.

When the green flag dropped, Gase trailed the outside line while Gragson and Busch were nose-to-tail on the inside line and quickly pulling away with 35th-place Cody Ware in his #51 Costa Oil Ford. By Lap 7, Gase was 9.200 seconds back of the lead to the now 36th-place Ware’s deficit of 7.778, a gap which steadily increased to 13.424 ad 10.463 on Lap 12. At the time, Gase’s crew was unable to receive timing and scoring data, but did soon update him where the leader was running. On Lap 18, he was told the leaders wanted to run the high lane. So on Lap 20, Gase held the low lane through Turns 3 and 4 as then-leader William Byron moved past, putting him one lap down. On Lap 24, 36th-place Ware was still on the lead lap, 19.219 seconds back of the lead, but the penalized Busch and Gragson had only climbed to 33rd and 35th. Ware was then lapped on Lap 32, taking the “Lucky Dog” from Gase.

On Lap 38, Byron lapped Gase a second time, this time in Turn 1, but was having trouble lapping 35th-place Gragson. So much trouble, in fact, that Brad Keselowski soon caught him for the lead. But Keselowski, too, couldn’t complete the pass on Byron, creating a stack-up at both converging ends of the field. On Lap 49, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., whose #47 NOS Energy Chevrolet was caught by Gragson and now Busch, skated up the track in Turn 1 and dropped to 35th, one lap down along with Ware and one lap ahead of Gase. It wasn’t until Lap 55 that Byron lapped the now 34th-place Gragson, and not until Lap 62 that Busch was lapped from 33rd. On Lap 66, leaders Byron and Keselowski lapped Gase for a third time in Turns 3 and 4. Keselowski finally took the lead from Byron on Lap 68, and won Stage 1 on Lap 71.

Though three laps down, Gase called for only minimal changes to address both a tight condition in the center and some brake shake. The car was handling much better than practice, where the team had run so slow. Gase did mention his right arm was falling asleep as the steering wheel was positioned too high for him, but he denied a cushion from the team to sit up higher in the car. Carl Long came over the radio about putting rebound in the left-rear shock, and the team made a second stop on Lap 79 to top off on fuel.

When Stage 2 began on Lap 80, Gase was running his fastest laps of the race so far, running four consecutive laps in the 24.7-second bracket. Still, on Lap 104, he lost a fourth lap, and on Lap 121, Stenhouse lost a second lap and fell to 36th. Gase then lost a fifth lap on Lap 124. On Lap 136, with 33 cars still on the lead lap, Long radioed he wanted Gase to make his next stop on Lap 155. But after losing a sixth lap on Lap 149, he was told on Lap 153 he could pit anytime in the next couple laps. Gase made his stop for four tires and returned to the track on Lap 157, now a full eight laps back of the leader with no one in the garage area.

On Lap 171, just after Zane Smith dropped to 35th, two laps down, in the #38 Mystik Lubricants Ford, the first caution for an on-track incident occurred. Shane Van Gibergen, whose brake bias knob had failed earlier in the race, lost control in Turn 2 and backed his #88 Red Bull Chevrolet into the outside wall. Van Gisbergen remained on track after repairs while Gase turned off his brake fans to try and calm his car’s brake shake. At the time, Gase had earned one of his laps back, putting him seven back of the leader. On the Lap 177 restart, where Van Gisbergen cleared minimum speed, Gase had to catch the tail end of the field on the backstretch, yet still trailed by open track when the green came out.

The race then devolved into a series of starts and stops as multiple single-car incidents for minor damage slowed the action. On Lap 180, Cody Ware spun on the frontstretch and dropped to 34th, just as Gragson fell to 36th, two laps behind. On Lap 204, Ty Dillon spun his #10 Sea Best Chevrolet into the Turn 2 wall, pushing out his left-rear fender, but continued along two laps down in 36th. On Lap 216, as Dillon came in for more repairs, Gase made another stop along with Ware. The Garage 66 team told him he was setting up for a 133-lap run, but his fuel would only take him 110 laps. Long corrected this, saying it would be just 90 laps, taking him to Lap 305. On Lap 220, the race restated, only to be slowed two laps later when Denny Hamlin spun his #11 Bob’s Discount Furniture Toyota in Turn 3. This caution meant Gase could stretch his fuel to Lap 320 or perhaps Lap 325.

Back under green on Lap 228, then again the yellow came out on Lap 229 as Carson Hocevar knocked Zane Smith into a spin, damaging the rear bumper on Smith’s #38 just over 20 laps after Smith got his lap back. This resulted in an extended stop that placed Smith back to 36th, two laps down. Smith cleared minimum speed on the Lap 236 restart, moments before Erik Jones spun his #43 Massey Motor Freight Toyota on the frontstretch. On Lap 249, the 36th spot once again held by the damaged Ty Dillon fell to Bubba Wallace, who broke a toe link after contact from John Hunter Nemechek put Wallace’s #23 Alltroo Toyota into the wall off Turn 4.

Yet another caution on Lap 254 came out after polesitter Chase Briscoe bumped Christopher Bell’s #20 Rheem Toyota and Tyler Reddick’s #45 McDonald’s Toyota into a spin in Turn 1. Then another spin by Van Gisbergen on Lap 263. Under this caution, Carl Long and crew had some fun remarking on how no one was falling out of the race:

More cautions fell, but the garage remained a ghost town. On Lap 272, Ty Dillon brought out his second caution after driving through the infield grass. Ten laps later, another caution for the right-side window popping out of Todd Gilliland’s #34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford. Then, finally, after eight consecutive runs of no more than eight green-flag laps each, the race stayed green for the final 64 laps. During this run, Bubba Wallace, who got both his laps back with the final two “Lucky Dogs” of the day, rallied all the way to 6th at the finish.

On Lap 295, Long said he wasn’t sure if Gase’s left-rear tire was going down, but the driver only reported his car felt a little tighter on this run. With 44 to go, Gase was lapped an eighth time. At the time, the two cars ahead of him of Smith and Dillon were each 3 down while Ware was the last car on the lead lap in 32nd. With 28 to go, Gase’s car was even tighter and he lost a ninth lap down the backstretch. With seven to go, he lost a 10th lap.

Then, as the leader took the white flag, Zane Smith made an unscheduled stop for fuel and right-side tires, then returned to the track six laps down, locking up the 36th spot. But Gase had by then locked-up the last spot, another four laps behind. He reached the checkered flag under power. Ty Dillon took 35th, one lap ahead of Smith, with Gilliland and Stenhouse another lap ahead to complete the Bottom Five.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*Gase is the first driver to finish last in a Cup race while still under power since March 31, 2024, when Corey LaJoie completed more than the scheduled 400 laps at Richmond after the race went into overtime. His #7 Gainbridge Chevrolet ended up turning 404 of the 407 total laps, three laps down to race winner Denny Hamlin.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

37) #66-Joey Gase / 340 laps / running

36) #38-Zane Smith / 344 laps / running

35) #10-Ty Dillon / 346 laps / running

34) #34-Todd Gilliland / 347 laps / running

33) #47-Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. / 347 laps / running

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Kaulig Racing (3)

2nd) 23XI Racing, Garage 66, Hendrick Motorsports, Legacy Motor Club, Penske Racing, Trackhouse Racing (2)

3rd) Front Row Motorsports, Hyak Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, NY Racing Team, RFK Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Rick Ware Racing, Spire Motorsports (1)

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (11)

2nd) Ford (7)

3rd) Toyota (5)

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

Brock Beard https://lastcar.info
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