William Byron Goes the Distance, Holds Off Challengers for Iowa Win

William Byron stretched the fuel in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for his second win of the NASCAR Cup Series season in the Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol at Iowa Speedway on Sunday.

Byron led the final 74 laps of the race, managing his fuel while staying ahead of Chase Briscoe and Brad Keselowski in the closing laps to secure the victory.

Race Results: NASCAR Cup Series Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol

"Man, how about that for some fuel mileage?" said Byron. "We’ve had our fair share of things not go our way with fuel mileage, and just super thankful for Rudy, all these guys, all the engineers, all the engineers back at the shop. Just this whole race team, we’ve been through a lot this year. It’s been a lot of growing pains. It’s been tough on us. But it feels really good today to get a win."

While fuel mileage was on Byron's side at race's end, it was hardly a fluke victory. The Charlotte, North Carolina native led 141 races in the event. A spree of cautions to open the final stage helped Byron stretch his fuel to the finish.

"Honestly, felt like we had a good car and just kind of raced it and just tried to be there at the end, and we were," said Byron. "Luckily, the fuel was enough there at the end."

While Byron has stayed near the top of the points standings all season long, the No. 24 team had not won a race since the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. That added to the desire for Byron and his team to get back to victory lane before the start of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

"Yeah, I think our confidence in each other never wavered," said Byron. "I feel like our speed has been better than it’s ever been, and that’s a big reason why we stay confident. I feel like every week we work really hard together and show up prepared, show up fast, and yeah, we needed just one to go our way, and today it did."

At one point, it looked like Briscoe had the pace to chase down Byron while the leader aggressively saved fuel. However, track position proved valuable for Byron in the closing laps.

"There at the end, I was running William down," said Briscoe. "I thought I was really in the catbird seat there and I just got there and kind of stalled out. I kind of experienced that when I was leading earlier. I caught the back of the field, and same thing; as soon as I got there, I just kind of died.

"Yeah, unfortunate. You’re kind of limited where you can go with the repave and everything, but yeah, overall great finish for our Bass Pro Shops Toyota. It’s cool Johnny was here and wanted to win with him here."

Brad Keselowski entered Iowa hopeful for a win to punch his ticket to the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. While the Michigan driver finished third, the strategy didn't work out in his favor.

"We had so many yellows there in Stage 3 that it got the 24 and the 19 to where they could make it on fuel pitting way outside the window, and we just couldn’t get back by them," said Keselowski.

"Got back by a lot of guys, restarted, I think 24th there after we pitted, and got all the way up to third, but that was as far as I could get."

A total of 12 caution flags flew during the Iowa Corn 350, seven of which came during the final stage as the aggression ramped up and drivers wrestled for control on the 7/8-mile Iowa Speedway.

The NASCAR Cup Series goes to Watkins Glen International next Sunday, August 10, for the Go Bowling at the Glen. Coverage of the race will be on USA Network, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

-Photo credit: Sean Gardner, Getty Images