William Byron Wins NASCAR Cup race in Iowa

William Byron carefully guided his Chevrolet to the finish at Iowa Speedway, with his entire NASCAR Cup Series team anxiously hoping there was enough fuel to cross the checkered flag.

After running out of fuel while in third place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last week and leading at Michigan International Speedway earlier this summer, Byron successfully conserved enough fuel to reach the finish line, holding off Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, and Ryan Blaney to win the Iowa Corn 350 on Sunday, Aug. 3.

"How about that for some fuel mileage," Byron said with relief after exiting his car at the start/finish line. "We've faced our share of challenges with fuel mileage. It's been a tough year with a lot of growing pains, but today feels really good to get a win.

"Fortunately, the fuel lasted until the end. I think I ran out there, which is why I stopped."

Byron, who began the race in second behind Briscoe, led a race-high 141 of the 350 laps.

He regained the lead by passing teammate Chase Elliott on a restart on Lap 277, but several cautions disrupted the fuel strategy for many teams. Byron had made the earliest pit stop among the drivers pursuing him in the final laps, forcing both him and the No. 24 team to balance maintaining enough speed to lead and having sufficient gas to finish.

Byron started the season with a win at the season-opening Daytona 500 in February, but despite leading the points standings for most of the season, Daytona remained his only victory of 2025.

"Our confidence in each other never wavered," Byron said. "Our speed has been better than ever, which is a major reason for our confidence. We just needed one to go our way, and today it did."

Briscoe finished second, Keselowski third, Blaney fourth, and Ryan Preece fifth. Last week's winner Bubba Wallace recovered from earlier damage to finish sixth. Alex Bowman, Carson Hocevar, Joey Logano, and Austin Dillon completed the top 10.