A-MAIZE-ING SAVING; FUEL MILEAGE FINALLY GOES BYRON’S WAY

NEWTON, Iowa – William Byron stretched a tank of fuel at Iowa Speedway for 144 laps on Sunday to win his second race of the season and re-claim the regular season points lead.

After running out of gas late at Michigan and Indianapolis in 2025, Byron managed to conserve enough to beat Chase Briscoe and Brad Keselowski. This race marked Byron’s first win since the season-opening Daytona 500 and allowed him to retake the points lead from Chase Elliott.

“You never expect to be in a fuel mileage race,” Byron said. “It was kind of amazing that we could continue to stretch it or keep the same gap to second even saving fuel.”

Byron made his final stop on lap 206 after Ty Dillon brought out the race’s fifth caution. From there, seven more cautions flew during the final stage, aiding Byron in his quest to save fuel.

“Kind of crazy that that was our last pit stop,” Byron said. “The way the cautions fell, it kind of forced our hand to continue to stay out, and we just went with it.”

Byron cycled from the rear of the field back onto the front row with Elliott for a restart with 74 laps to go. Byron fired off with the lead through the first turn, clearing Elliott on the backstretch.

As the laps ticked by, Byron was in the all-too-familiar position of fuel saving. Pole-sitter Chase Briscoe and Brad Keselowski, who won the stages, both didn’t need to save and chased Byron.

“Usually someone is catching us at the end and we’re having to hold them off,” Byron said. “To be on the other side of it this time and be pulling away and saving fuel was awesome.”

Byron earned 230 stage points in 2025, 39 more than the field, but has lacked victories. “I feel like we deserved to win a race based on how we’ve run,” Byron said, “It just wasn’t happening.”

Now, Byron’s spent 18 races atop the points standings since Daytona and five races in second. This is the longest stretch inside the top two points positions since Kevin Harvick in 2020. 

Despite contact with teammates, Briscoe continued his streak of strong finishes with a third runner-up result in four races. Briscoe also scored a series-leading sixth pole position of 2025.

“For us to end up second was a good recovery,” Briscoe said. “Our day kind of got flipped upside down whenever that caution came out and trapped us and was able to rebound.

Brad Keselowski, who entered Iowa 24th in points, climbed to 19th after his best race of the season. Keselowski swept the stages, his first since Spring Martinsville 2019, to score 55 points.

“We had so many yellows there in Stage 3 that it got (Byron) and (Briscoe) to where they could make it on fuel,” Keselowski said after leading 81 laps. “We just couldn’t get back by them.”

Defending winner Ryan Blaney finished in fourth with Ryan Preece completing the top five. Keselowski and Preece scored RFK Racing’s first mulit-car consecutive top-fives since 2012. 

Next up, NASCAR stops in New York. The 2.45-mile road course of Watkins Glen International hosts the Go Bowling at The Glen for 90 laps of twists and turns in the heart of the Empire State.

The race begins Sunday August 10 at 2 p.m. ET live on the USA network. Radio coverage can be found on the Motor Racing Network with all in-car cameras streamed exclusively on MAX.