William Byron nursed his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet home on fuel to win Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Ia.
With a 1 1/2-secord lead over polesitter Chase Briscoe in the final 20 laps, the 27-year-old Charlotte, N.C., native beat Briscoe by 1.192 seconds for his second win after capturing the season-opening Daytona 500 for the second straight time.
Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney and Ryan Preece rounded out the top five in the race, which had 12 cautions for 72 laps.
A Chevrolet driver won for the fourth time in the past six races.
In his 100th career NASCAR Cup Series start, John Hunter Nemechek was 15th.
Driving a backup car and starting last after wrecking in Saturday’s practice, two-time Cup champ Kyle Busch was 20th.
In NASCAR’s return to the Hawkeye State for the second straight time, Byron gapped Briscoe right from the start and led the first 67 laps, but Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford came alive and put pressure on Byron.
With Byron’s car getting tight and lacking full braking, Keselowski, a three-time winner at Iowa in the Xfinity Series, passed the No. 24 for the 10 bonus points for winning Stage 1.
Austin Cindric, Byron, Blaney and Briscoe filled the top five finishers in the first segment of the 350-lap race.
In Stage 2, Briscoe displayed the speed he had in qualifying and took the point, while defending Iowa winner Blaney stayed within a half-second behind the first-year Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
With Keselowski leading on Lap 170, the first caution for incident occurred when Shane van Gisbergen looped his Chevrolet between Turns 1 and 2.
After Ty Dillon’s spin set up a shootout to decide Stage 2, Keselowski won another segment, this time with Carson Hocevar wrecking back in the field. Blaney, Cindric and Ty Gibbs took the next three spots.
The second half of the race featured a slew of cautions after only two in the first 170 laps. In all, 10 more yellows flew as much of the final 180 circuits were slowed and pit stops became more frequent.
–Field Level Media
