Alfredo & Young’s Hope Pairing Leads To Iowa Strength

Anthony Alfredo (Nigel Kinrade/NKP photo)

NEWTON, Iowa – With a new team and new ideas in his corner, Anthony Alfredo is hopeful for better days in his NASCAR Xfinity Series return to Iowa Speedway this weekend.

Though Alfredo came from 19th on the grid to finish 15th last season with Our Motorsports, he feels it’s a track where he can be capable of even more, given his short-track upbringing early in his racing career.

Adding to that optimism was the fact that Alfredo watched Young’s Motorsports – the team he now drives for in the No. 42 Chevrolet – finish ahead of him in 13th place one year ago with then-rookie Leland Honeyman Jr.

Putting those two facets together, plus an extended 50-minute practice session prior to the Hy-Vee Perks 250, gives Alfredo confidence entering the seven-eighths-mile racetrack.

“Iowa Speedway was a challenging race last year for me for a couple of reasons, so I’m excited to go back with a new team and new setup,” said Alfredo. “Hopefully, our approach works out and the extra practice time helps us get the car dialed in for the race.

“I’ve been watching last year’s race back because the repave made the return to the track quite a bit different from prior races there,” he added. “The repave doesn’t cover the whole surface, only the first few lanes, so you can’t run as high as you used to be able to. The surface in the corners also doesn’t wear the tires as much as the straightaway, which has not been repaved like the corners.

“That’s going to make track position very prominent, since it was difficult to pass last year, and you won’t be able to afford any mistakes. We have to be on our A-game and hope for the best.”

Alfredo comes into ‘The Fastest Short Track on the Planet’ 23rd in the Xfinity Series playoff standings and in a must-win situation with five races to go before the start of the postseason.

While Iowa might not necessarily be the place that happens, Alfredo knows that a solid day is the first step toward the team’s ultimate goal of finding their way to victory lane for the first time together.

“A top 15 would be a good finish for our team and help us get some momentum rolling ahead of Watkins Glen and Daytona in August,” Alfredo noted. “We have had a lot of ups and downs throughout the first half of the race season, but I’m confident we can recover by bringing fast cars to the track and executing well throughout this second half.

“We need more top 10s and a couple of top fives before the end of the season,” he added. “Ideally, winning just one race before the playoffs is our ultimate goal, because it would completely save our season.”

Anthony Alfredo's No. 42 Wilde Protein Chips Chevrolet. (Young's Motorsports photo)

Alfredo and Young’s Motorsports welcome new partner Wilde Protein Chips as the primary sponsor of the No. 42 Chevrolet for Iowa Speedway.

Founded in 2017 and based in Nashville, Tenn., Wilde Brands Inc. is a producer of seven different flavors of protein chips made from fully, all-natural chicken breast, egg whites, and bone broth.

Iowa marks the first time that Wilde Protein Chips has been a primary sponsor in NASCAR competition, and it’s a partnership Alfredo noted he’s “been working on for a while.”

“So excited to have Wilde Protein Chips join us for Iowa and I hope we can deliver them not just a solid race, but an experience that will build a lasting relationship with them into the future,” Alfredo said. “We’re coming into Iowa with a ‘chip’ on our shoulder and ready to go for everything we can get.”

Broadcast coverage of Saturday’s Hy-Vee Perks 250 is slated for 4:30 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.