XFINITY: Dawson Cram finishes last after he and Harmon team fight mechanical gremlins for nearly half of Iowa race

Aug 2

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

Dawson Cram picked up the 4th last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s HyVee Perks 250 at the Iowa Speedway when his unsponsored #74 Mike Harmon Racing Chevrolet fell out with a vibration after 93 of 250 laps.

The finish, which came in Cram’s 38th series start, was his first of the season and first in a XFINITY Series race since September 6, 2024 at Atlanta, 31 races ago. In the XFINITY Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 20th for the #74, the 142nd from a vibration, and the 669th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 60th for the #74, the 218th for a vibration, and the 2,004th for Chevrolet.

Just last week at Indianapolis, the Mike Harmon Racing team nearly didn’t make it to the track when the team’s dually broke down outside Asheville, North Carolina. Word spread quickly through social media, and Alpha Prime Racing lent a hand in getting the #74 to the Brickyard, where Cram finished on the lead lap in 31st. Such has it been for Harmon’s tenacious small team, which recently has expanded back into the Truck Series using a truck from the shuttered G2G Racing. With mostly 39 and 40-car entry lists this year, Harmon’s team made just five of their 12 attempted races heading into Iowa, including a streak of six attempts in a row. Their withdrawal from Bristol stirred rumors the team had closed – rumors quickly put to rest when the team arrived for the next race at Rockingham. Through it all, the team has not been a “start-and-park” – in fact, through their five previous starts this year, they failed to finish only at Phoenix, and only after 144 of the 208 laps.

At Iowa, Cram ranked 37th of the 38 entrants with a best lap of 25.402 seconds (124.006mph), besting only Tyler Tomassi’s lap of 26.378 seconds (119.418mph) in Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen’s #35 NOS Custom Diecast / K1 Speed Ford. Cram’s car ran the same black-and-blue scheme from Realty.com’s sponsorship earlier this year, but without both the company’s logos and the “Thank You” message the team placed on the hood last week following their Indianapolis rescue.

In qualifying, Tomassi and Cram were two of three drivers who failed to turn a lap, joined by Taylor Gray who had brake issues on the #54 Operation 300 Toyota. As the only part-time team of the three, Cram was ranked last of them, securing the 38th and final spot on the grid. The above photo by Colby Evans, who finished 23rd in his ARCA Menards Series debut at the Iowa track on Friday, showed right-side damage to Cram’s car after it had been on track.

Cram, Tomassi, and Gray were also three of the seven drivers to incur tail-end penalties for unapproved adjustments, joined by 9th-place Sammy Smith who spun his #8 TMC Transportation Chevrolet in qualifying, 32nd-place Jeb Burton whose crew needed to weld a cracked track bar on a “wrecking loose” #27 Krush 250 Chevrolet, 34th-place Ryan Ellis in the #71 Sweetwater Construction Chevrolet, and 35th-place Patrick Emerling in the #07 Motorplex of Nebraska Chevrolet.

When the race started, Tomassi appeared to be in last place, a couple car lengths of open track behind Cram and another car to the inside of the #74. On Lap 2, the first caution fell due to an incident up front. Ryan Sieg was fastest in practice and qualified his #39 SciAps Ford in the 7th spot. But going into Turn 1, Sieg broke loose and clipped Austin Dillon, this week’s substitute for a suspended Austin Hill in the #21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet. Both cars continued with Dillon making light contact with the outside wall, dropping Sieg to last place. By the Lap 9 restart, both Sieg and Dillon made quick work of Tomassi, who was 3.752 seconds back of the lead.

The next time by on Lap 10, Cram pulled down pit road, taking last place as the first driver one lap down. By Lap 16, he was in the garage, where someone on the crew first said their day was done due to a broken u-joint. But by Lap 21, the crew narrowed the issue to the shifter, and Mike Harmon confirmed they had a replacement. On Lap 36, the crew was putting the driveshaft back in the car, but on Lap 54, the team couldn’t get the car out of gear, saying now the transmission had broken. When asked if he could get the car into high gear, a crew member said, “I’m hitting it with a fucking hammer and it won’t do anything.” Still, the team kept working, finally getting the car into fourth gear on Lap 69. At the time, Cram was still the only driver in the garage, and only the still 37th-place Tomassi was more than one lap down. The team then decided to go out for at least a short run to see how the car felt. On Lap 74, Cram fired his engine. He exited pit road on Lap 76, then the next time by completed his 10th lap of the day, his first since going to the garage. Timing and scoring showed he’d spent 2702.153 seconds (approximately 34 minutes, 30 seconds) in the garage, putting him 65 laps down.

For the next several laps, Cram was told he was running good laps, though the driver said on Lap 86 his car was “loose as fuck.” On Lap 91, during a caution for a two-car spin between Ryan Ellis and Anthony Alfredo, the team talked about pulling into the garage, but Cram wanted to stay out through the next restart. With that, the team made a stop to put a packer in the right-front and directed the crew to adjust go four rounds down on the track bar. Due to his earlier issues, he also needed a push out of his pit stall. He returned to the track for the Lap 97 restart, when he was now 67 laps behind. On Lap 104, Cram was told he’d run his fastest lap of the race at a 25.78, and he reached the end of Stage 2 on Lap 122.

Under this caution, Cram reported the car felt “super abrasive in the right-rear over the bumps in the corner,” costing him right-rear grip. Unfortunately, the team couldn’t make any adjustments to help since the shocks were rebound-jetted. Cram deferred to Harmon about if they should continue, and Harmon apparently approved as the team came in for tires on Lap 127. The pit crew was out of practice as at least one member was told to go around the front of the car. “You’ve never seen a pit stop before?” asked a teammate. Cram also needed more of a push to get back on track. When he got going, the team said they would only run until Lap 182 if no one else fell out as they couldn’t gain any more spots. And so, on the Lap 129 restart, the countdown began.

Cram was reminded to turn on his brake fans shortly after each restart, and on Lap 138 reported his car was handling better on corner entry. He now had a vibration, which he felt wasn’t in the drive line, so he came back into the pits to check if his lug nuts were tight. When he returned to the track on Lap 143, he was told if the issue wasn’t any better it was likely due to a wheel bearing, which meant they should park for the day. But Cram said the vibration felt better, so Cram took the Lap 145 restart – about 40 laps from the Harmon team’s “end of our race” as they put it. At the time, all 38 cars were still running with 37th-place Tomassi now 5 laps down. Cram and Tomassi trailed the field by open track, exiting Turn 4 as the leaders took the green.

On Lap 161, TheCW’s cameras caught Cram entering Turn 3 as then-leader Ross Chastain put him down a 69th lap. Moments later, Cram reported smoke in the cockpit, and the team called him behind the wall short of their Lap 182 goal. They were soon declared the first car out, but with 93 laps completed – 84 laps further than they’d run prior to their first trip to the garage.

Long weekend, broke a gear in practice, broke a drive shaft in the race, only had 4th gear and finally had a wheel bearing go bad and end our day. Always thankful to drive a race car! pic.twitter.com/2znxucNyXe
— Dawson Cram Dawson Cram (@dawsoncram41) August 3, 2025

Attrition did remain light for the remainder of the day, though the lapped Tomassi managed to climb to 34th, ten laps down, by the checkered flag. The first car he passed was Mason Massey, whose #45 Mongoose Power Solutions Chevrolet glanced off the wall and slowed off Turn 2, but managed to make it to pit road without drawing the caution. Daniel Dye was running just outside the Top Ten on Lap 201 when his #10 Champion Container Chevrolet cut down a right-front tire, sending him across the nose of Josh Bilicki’s #91 Sukup Chevrolet as he slammed the wall. Matt DiBenedetto took 35th after his #99 Viking Motorsports Chevrolet ran in the back of Corey Day’s #17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet entering Turn 1. DiBenedetto trailed smoke as he pulled to the apron on the backstretch, but NASCAR didn’t throw the caution until the following lap, when Brandon Jones spun in his fluid, dropping the #20 Menards / Criterion Toyota out of the Top 10 to a 23rd-place finish.

Mayer scores first win for HFR, Harrison Burton battles to the finish

Saturday’s race saw Sam Mayer score his second consecutive victory in Iowa, but more significantly the first for Ford in 2025 and the first for the reincorporated Haas Factory Team. Both streaks dated back to last fall’s championship race at Phoenix, which was won by Riley Herbst in the final XFINITY weekend for Stewart-Haas Racing. Mayer’s #41 Audibel Ford finished 4th in both stages, continuing a season-long trend of battling in the Top 5, and led the final 28 laps following the DiBenedetto caution.

Also earning a strong finish was Harrison Burton, whose #25 Morton Buildings Ford battled for 2nd in the closing stages before settling back in 5th, closing out a day where he’d come home 9th in Stage 1 and 8th in Stage 2. This marked just the second top-five finish of the season for Burton and the AM Racing team, their first since a season-best 3rd back in Rockingham.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*While the #74 had never before finished last in a XFINITY race at Iowa, team owner Mike Harmon has – on August 1, 2009, he lost the brakes on Pete Szekeres’ #07 PMC Life Chevrolet after 6 laps of the U.S. Cellular 250.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

38) #74-Dawson Cram / 93 laps / vibration

37) #45-Mason Massey / 172 laps / suspension

36) #10-Daniel Dye / 200 laps / crash

35) #99-Matt DiBenedetto / 221 laps / crash

34) #35-Tyler Tomassi / 240 laps / running

2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Kaulig Racing (5)

2nd) Joe Gibbs Racing (4)

3rd) JR Motorsports, Sam Hunt Racing, SS-Green Light Racing (2)

4th) Alpha Prime Racing, Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen, Mike Harmon Racing, Our Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, RSS Racing, Young’s Motorsports (1)

2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (15)

2nd) Toyota (6)

3rd) Ford (1)

2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP