Iowa Corn 350: Gibbs holds off Bell for Iowa victory

NEWTON, Iowa — Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ty Gibbs ran up front for most of the race at Iowa Speedway and capitalized on a two-tire strategy call by crew chief Tyler Allen during the final green-flag pit stop to lead the final 20 laps en route to Victory Lane in the Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol — his second career win in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Gibbs showed pace all weekend, finishing with the second-best time in practice and qualifying sixth. From there, the driver of the No. 54 SiriusXM Toyota managed to stay up front and even bounced back after a slow pit stop to win for the second time in 2026.

“Yeah, I just had to keep my head down, gel up and stay with it,” Gibbs said when asked how he kept his composure with his teammate closing in. “I appreciate my team, (spotter) Tony Hirschman; all glory to Jesus Christ.

“Just people that want to support each other. We made a big step from last year, obviously, and I really appreciate it. But I really appreciate all my teammates too. I wouldn’t be here without all my teammates as well, week in and week out, just help keep developing the program. And obviously we’re all up front for a reason. I really appreciate Denny (Hamlin) and Chase (Briscoe) and Christopher (Bell) for all their help, obviously.”

In addition to winning at Iowa, Gibbs is now second in the Cup Series standings. With his win, he is also the first driver since Kurt Busch (2002) to earn both of their first two Cup wins on a short track, according to NASCAR Insights.

JGR’s Christopher Bell had one of the strongest race cars throughout the race. Bell won Stage 2 and led 108 laps en route to his seventh second-place finish of the 2026 season. The driver of the No. 20 DeWalt Toyota also jumped four spots in the Cup Series standings to sixth.

“This is what you call a bad second-place finish for sure,” Bell said. “I don’t know what else to say. Ty did a really good job. He did a great job managing the race. I could tell that he was slipping and sliding around. Similar to last week or two weeks ago with Corey Heim, he just didn’t make a mistake. So P2.”

Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney was one of the favorites entering the weekend. Blaney won Stage 1 and led a race-high 129 laps, finishing third, which was his third consecutive top-five finish at Iowa.

“I don’t think so really,” Blaney said when asked if the four-tire stop spoiled his day. “It set us back a little bit, but I thought it was going to play out pretty good. I got really loose into 3 one lap, and I lost eight spots on the restart, kind of got back to eighth. But the 20 and the 54 were definitely better than me second half of the race. But Jonathan (Hassler, crew chief) did a good job of putting two on it after the Stage 2 caution, kind of got some track position back, and then kind of sat in third and kind of ran there.

“Overall, really good weekend, good practice and qualifying and strong showing in the race. Appreciate Menards and Ford for what they do, and it’s nice to get a good finish here. Even though it’s not a win, pretty decent day.”

Results from the 2026 Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol at Iowa Speedway are listed below:

Other Race Facts

With Ty Gibbs’ win at Iowa Speedway, Toyota is now the only manufacturer with victories at every active track on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.

Wood Brothers Racing driver Josh Berry, who is “racing for his career,” had his best race of the year. The driver of the No. 21 Menards/Master Force Tools Ford finished fourth, marking his first top-five finish since New Hampshire in Sept. 2025.

“I feel like everybody on the 21 car did a really good job all weekend,” Berry said. “We just unloaded good. I felt like we left a little bit out there for qualifying, and definitely had great long run pace throughout the race. Just needed it to run long enough to show it, and we were finally able to do that and overcome a lot of things.

“Didn’t have a great day on pit road, struggled a little bit firing off. But once we got going, I felt like we were really good and definitely a good day. I love coming here. It makes it easy when your cars drive like they did this weekend, and we’ve just got to keep pushing. I think we’ve got a lot of good tracks coming up. Excited to get to Richmond next week and keep going after these good finishes.”

According to NASCAR Insights, Berry’s top five at Iowa was the Wood Brothers’ first top-five finish on a short track since Ricky Rudd at Bristol in 2005.

Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain had a strong performance, scoring 43 points, leading 40 laps and finishing seventh. The driver of the No. 1 Busch Light Farming Chevrolet jumped three spots in the Cup Series standings, sitting 18th with three races before The Chase.

“It was an incredible weekend for this No. 1 Busch Light Farming Chevrolet team,” Chastain said. “It was just a complete weekend from the very first lap. We made very small changes all weekend. We just made a few air pressure adjustments, a couple tenths here and a couple tenths there throughout the race, and really, we could have left it alone. To run in the top five and take a shot at those guys, I love that Brandon McSwain (crew chief) swung for that. A seventh-place finish still feels really good. I don’t care about points unless the speed comes with it, and today was the speed we are looking for.”

Chastain’s teammate, Connor Zilisch, had one of the best performances of his rookie year in the Cup Series. Zilisch started eighth, finished ninth in Stage 1, 10th in Stage 2, and 11th in the race — which ties his best oval finish to date at NASCAR’s premier level.

“It definitely feels good to come back from the off weekend and have a solid day with this No. 88 Roto-Rooter Chevrolet team,” Zilisch said. “We got points in both stages and just missed a top 10 with an 11th-place finish. I’m proud of this entire team for keeping their heads down. Our pit crew did a great job. This should help us for qualifying at Richmond (Raceway) next weekend and hopefully we can go have a good run there.”

Tyler Reddick, who had spent most of the year leading the Cup Series standings, has now fallen to fourth after another disappointing race weekend. While running inside the top five just three laps into the race, Reddick got loose and smashed the outside wall in Turn 1, ending his day and collecting Legacy Motor Club driver and Toyota teammate Erik Jones in the process.

AJ Allmendinger had a strong eighth-place finish for the Kaulig Racing organization that has no manufacturer support from Chevrolet.

GRID Ranking

The 2026 GRID Ranking is the 10th year of the world’s premier motorsports ranking system, which was initially released on Sunday, April 5.
The official ranking includes drivers participating in seven racing series (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, WRC, Supercars, MotoGP). Each driver earns GRID Ratings, which help determine their seeding in the GRID Ranking.

DRIVER	OLD RATING	PREVIOUS RANKING	MOST RECENT FINISH	NEW RATING	NEW RANKING
Denny Hamlin	14.73	4th	5th	14.74	4th
Tyler Reddick	13.86	6th	36th	13.26	6th
Ty Gibbs	10.02	22nd	1st	11.20	16th
Christopher Bell	10.16	21st	2nd	10.87	18th
Chase Briscoe	9.75	23rd	6th	9.85	24th

Week 19 of the GRID Ranking:

Week 19 saw Tyler Reddick’s score continue to fall, while Ty Gibbs jumped ahead of Christopher Bell. Denny Hamlin remains the leader in the NASCAR GRID Rating.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway on Saturday, Aug. 15. Coverage begins at 7 p.m. ET on USA Network.

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