Iowa Corn 350: William Byron returns to Victory Lane after a dominant fuel-saving effort at Iowa

NEWTON, Iowa — Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron put on a show during the Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol, leading a race-high 141 laps on Sunday afternoon at Iowa Speedway en route to his second win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Byron, who had been on a summer slump, found his way back to Victory Lane by saving fuel and took the points lead in the Regular Season Championship, with just three races remaining until the 2025 Cup Series Playoffs.

“Yeah, it was just a big relief,” Byron said. “I feel like we have been on the bad side of some fuel races, and everybody has been working super hard and that was every ounce it took there at the end. Man, just so damn proud of this team. I feel like we have been through so much this year, and everybody has been working super hard and it showed there at the end.”

Byron was really close on fuel and had to save throughout the final green-flag stint, which lasted for 63 laps.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe was fast all weekend. The driver of the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota was third fastest in practice, won his sixth pole of the year and led 81 laps before finishing in second. This was his ninth top-five finish of the 2025 season.

“First off, I just want to apologize to the 45 (Tyler Reddick) and the 20 (Christopher Bell), that was just a boneheaded move on my part,” Briscoe said about an incident that caused his Toyota teammates to spin. “Got in there and got loose and ruined their day, that was 100 percent on me. In the end, I was running William (Byron) down and I thought I was in the catbird seat there. I got there and kind of stalled out. I experienced that when I was leading earlier, I caught the back of the field and it was the same thing, as soon as I got there it just kind of died. It’s unfortunate, you are limited in where you can go with the repave.

“Overall, a great finish for our Bass Pro Shops Toyota, it was cool. Johnny (Morris, Bass Pro Shops owner) was here and I was wanting us to win with him here, to end up second was a good recovery. Our day got kind of got flipped upside down when that caution came out and trapped us, but I was able to rebound. Congrats to William, he did a really good job and we’ll go on to the next one.”

One of the best cars all race long was the No. 6 Solomon Plumbing Ford of Brad Keselowski. The RFK Racing owner/driver swept both Stage 1 and Stage 2, while also leading 68 laps before ending up in third place. This was Keselowski’s second straight top-five finish and fourth of the 2025 season.

“We had so many yellows in stage three that it got the 24 and the 19 where they could make it on fuel pitting way outside the window,” Keselowski said. “We just couldn’t get back by them. Got back by a lot of guys. Restarted 24th there I think after we pitted. Got all the way back up to third but that was as far as I could get. Great run for both of our RFK cars. Obviously, we want to win but we’re in contention, that’s for sure. We will keep putting solid runs on the board and I think this will come to us.

“We have some pretty strong Ford Mustangs right now. Blaney was really fast there at the end. He had a little bit newer tires and he was running us down. I feel like I was going to get the 19 but Blaney was going to pass me. It was a solid day, we just needed a few more things to go our way.”

Keselowski’s 55 points scored were the most of any driver in the field.

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

Other Race Facts

After running the first 169 laps before a natural caution, chaos ensued shortly afterward. There were 12 total cautions (10 natural cautions), with the majority of them coming between Laps 220 and 281. The final laps, between 287 and 350, all went green.

Chase Briscoe has now led more laps in 2025 than in any other season in his NASCAR Cup Series career. He has also now finished in second in three of the last four races.

This was the first time since 2019 that Brad Keselowski swept the stages in a Cup Series race.

Bubba Wallace, the Brickyard 400 winner, had a very quiet day until he got damaged after making contact with the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota of John Hunter Nemechek and then hitting the wall. The 23XI Racing driver went two laps down, and after getting the free pass on Lap 282, Wallace drove from 32nd up to sixth place to earn his third consecutive top 10.

Ryan Blaney finished fourth just one year after dominating this event in 2024 and leading over 200 laps. The Team Penske driver seemed to have the best car toward the end of the race, but he just ran out of time.

“I just restarted a little further back than those guys and it took me longer to get in a decent spot,” Blaney said. “Honestly, it sort of surprised me just how hard those guys tanked at the end and my car kept chugging along. I ran Brad down but everyone is so free it is hard to pass anybody. You are scared of spinning out and you are creeping around the bottom but it was a fun race. I am really proud of our group for sticking with it. I appreciate Wabash and Ford and Menards for doing what they do. Really good showing and just keep going.

“It has been a good last few weeks for us. I think the speed is there, just have to keep putting these races together. We had a good shot to win today but it just didn’t work out. The strategies just got really weird with all those cautions. We were on the back end of it and it just kind of cycled me behind. We were covered really nicely. Really proud of the 12 group.”

Blaney’s teammate, Austin Cindric, had one of his best races since his victory at Talladega back in April. Cindric finished inside the top three in both stages and went on to score 42 points after finishing 12th.

 

GRID RANKING