Ickler Wins U.S. Cellular 200 at Iowa Speedway!

(Newton, IA) - (Newton, Iowa) - Brian Ickler of San Diego, Calif., drove the Ickler Motorsports Chevrolet to victory Sunday afternoon in the NASCAR Camping World U.S. Cellular 200 at Iowa Speedway before an announced estimated paid attendance of 24,042.

Ickler, who started seventh, took the lead from Marc Davis of Mitchelville, Md., with about 15 laps to go, then held off Davis and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series star Kasey Kahne (Enumclaw, Wash.) for the victory. Trevor Bayne of Knoxville, Tenn., and Jeffrey Earnhardt of Mooresville, N.C., rounded out the top five.

"The biggest thing today was battling the tight conditions of the car," said Ickler. "The longer we ran, the tighter the car got, but everyone had the same situation. We just had to keep heat in the tires during cautions."

David led often during the second half of the race, but said he couldn't hold off Ickler.

"I knew he was coming," David said of his battle with Ickler for several laps late in the race when the eventual winner was able to get by. "About lap 160, my car just kept getting tighter and tighter every lap and 15 (Ickler) was good & he had to work to get around me and I'm happy with second place".

Kahne, who won the NASCAR All-Star Race Saturday night at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, a win that netted the former sprint car driver a million dollar payday, started fourth. Under Camping World Series rules, drivers are allowed only gas or tires during a pit stop, but not both.

"That was different," Kahne said. "Maybe we took tires too early, but we passed a lot of cars today. We did all we could, but we had a good third-place car. Early in the race, the car worked pretty good everywhere we ran, but later it pushed real bad and the key was to find the best line to get off the corners."

"This track is real racy. To me, it drives a lot like Richmond and it's very fan-friendly for the good competition. This has longer straights than Richmond and is faster, but the turns, to me at least, are very similar."

Austin Dillon, grandson of former NASCAR Sprint Cup driver and current owner of RCR Racing Richard Childress, set fast time with a lap of :23.576 (133.610 miles per hour), just off the record set last year by Kevin Harvick. Dillon finished seventh. Former NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Steve Park was eighth, while sixth went to Jesus Hernandez of Fresno, Calif.

2008 NCWS Iowa 5/18/08 Unofficial Results

Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff
1 15 Brian Ickler 200 03:13.8 -
2 18 Marc Davis 200 03:15.1 1.254
3 9 Kasey Kahne 200 03:15.2 1.391
4 1 Trevor Bayne * 200 03:16.9 3.109
5 8 Jeffery Earnhardt 200 03:21.4 7.587
6 11 Jesus Hernandez 200 03:21.7 7.826
7 3 Austin Dillon * 200 03:24.3 10.432
8 35 Steve Park 200 03:24.5 10.723
9 40 Matt Kobyluck 200 03:25.9 12.1
10 1 Jim Inglebright 200 03:31.6 17.744
11 3 Rogelio Lopez 200 03:32.5 18.69
12 81 Mark McFarland 200 03:32.7 18.863
13 46 Jeff Barkshire * 200 03:34.7 20.859
14 44 Peyton Sellers 200 03:35.2 21.365
15 14 Austin Cameron 200 03:35.2 21.368
16 2 Mike David 200 03:35.4 21.568
17 17 Jason Patison * 200 03:35.5 21.669
18 16 Moses Smith 200 03:37.6 23.773
19 22 Jason Bowles 200 03:38.1 24.245
20 99 Bryon Chew 199 03:15.7 1 Lap
21 31 James Buescher 199 03:16.0 1 Lap
22 4 Ricky Carmichael * 199 03:18.5 1 Lap
23 77 Andrew Myers 199 03:19.6 1 Lap
24 34 Mike Gallegos 199 03:19.6 1 Lap
25 42 Jeff Jefferson 199 03:21.2 1 Lap
26 91 Ben Stancill * 199 03:21.9 1 Lap
27 70 Greg Pursley 199 03:37.7 1 Lap
28 20 Eric Holmes 198 03:25.6 2 Laps
29 8 Johnny Borneman 197 03:24.6 3 Laps
30 65 Stan Silva Jr. 197 03:25.2 3 Laps
31 30 Jeff Anton 195 03:33.4 5 Laps
32 10 James Warn * 189 03:28.4 11 Laps
33 52 Jamie Hayes 188 03:15.6 12 Laps
34 2 Craig Goess * 180 03:35.9 20 Laps
35 71 Daryl Harr 161 03:27.4 39 Laps
36 88 Jamie Dick * 161 03:29.0 39 Laps
37 12 Jonathan Smith 150 49:33.3 50 Laps
38 75 Eddie MacDonald 149 03:14.3 51 Laps
39 5 Eric Hardin 130 22:40.3 70 Laps
40 19 Terry Henry 96 02:47.6 104 Laps
41 61 Brett Thompson 92 59:18.4 108 Laps
42 51 Alex Haase 55 32:39.0 145 Laps
43 21 David Mayhew 9 08:11.0 191 Laps
44 41 Ryan Foster 2 01:04.2 198 Laps