Stretching his last tank of fuel for the final 144 laps, William Byron held on to win a nail-biter at Iowa Speedway over pole-sitter Chase Briscoe and Brad Keselowski.
“Man, we deserved that one,” Byron told his team on the radio after his second victory this season. “Appreciate it. Thanks to everybody.”
It was the second win of the season for Byron, who lost a race at Michigan International Speedway two months ago when his No. 24 Chevrolet ran out of fuel.
In the closing laps at Iowa, crew chief Rudy Fugle kept coaching his driver to “Back it up! Back it up!” to Briscoe — slowing down his pace for improved mileage as his lead hovered around a second.
“How about that for some fuel mileage?” Byron joked with NASCAR on NBC pit reporter Marty Snider. “We’ve had our fair share of things not go our way with fuel mileage. Super thankful for Rudy and all these guys, the engineers back at the shop. We’ve been through a lot this year. There’s been a lot of growing pains. It’s been tough on us, but it feels really good today to get a win.”
SVG’s spin turns over Cup pit strategy at Iowa
Shane van Gisbergen loses the handle on his No. 88 and backs into the outside wall, proving to be a game-changing caution during green-flag pit stops at Iowa Speedway.
Ryan Blaney and Ryan Preece rounded out the top five.
Byron made his final pit stop on Lap 206 of 350 on the 0.875-mile oval, where the pit window is estimated at about 110 green-flag laps. The Hendrick Motorsports driver led a race-high 141 laps in his first victory since winning the Daytona 500 season opener.
“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,” Byron said. “Luckily, the fuel was enough at the end. I think I ran out right there, that’s why I stopped.”
Iowa Cup race gets feisty with more spins, tempers
Three-wide racing leads to a pair of spins and hot tempers during Stage 3 at Iowa Speedway.
After a clean Stage 1 without a caution flag, the race got extremely choppy after only one yellow in the first 170 laps.
The second half of the race featured 11 cautions, which had a cascading effect on myriad strategies and left some strong cars in precarious tactical spots.
Keselowski won the first two stages and led three times for 68 laps, but his No. 6 Ford got trapped in a difficult strategy by a rash of yellows that bookended the end of Stage 2. The Roush Fenway Keselowski driver-owner pitted from the lead on Lap 231 and was unable to get back to the front after falling outside the top 20.
WILL BE UPDATED
Stage 1 winner: Keselowski
Stage 2 winner: Keselowski
Next: Sunday, Aug. 10, 2 p.m. ET at Watkins Glen International on USA
