William Byron saves enough fuel to win caution-filled…

After a lack of fuel cost him the win at Michigan, William Byron has made up for it by stretching a single fuel tank 144 laps to win the NASCAR Cup race at Iowa.

With the help of a caution-filled final stage, and rivals who themselves each faltered in the closing laps, Byron’s Hail Mary play to stay out at all costs earned Byron and the 24 team its second win of the 2025 season.

"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.

"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, and luckily the fuel was enough there at the end. I think I ran out right there. That's why I stopped."

William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images)

In a race that featured 12 cautions, when to make the final pit stop became an impossible guessing game for the entire field. Varying strategies were strewn across the board, but it was Byron with an incredibly aggressive fuel-save strategy who emerged victorious.

Pole-sitter Chase Briscoe finished second and Brad Keselowski, who won both Stage 1 and 2, finished third. Ryan Blaney and Ryan Preece rounded out the top five with the remainder of the top ten as follows: Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Carson Hocevar, Joey Logano, and Austin Dillon.

Stages 1 and 2

Erik Jones, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Toyota, Chase Briscoe, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford (Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images)

Keselowski showed impressive speed from the very start, charging forward. He battled Byron for the lead as they navigated slower traffic for over 40 laps before finally getting him out of the groove, snagging his first stage win of the 2025 season.

Cindric ended Stage 1 in second place, and Byron crossed the line third.

Stage 2 was more hectic. Briscoe won the race off pit road, courtesy of the No. 1 pit box he secured with his pole position on Saturday.

The second stage was twice as long as the opening stage, leading to green-flag pit stops. About 14 drivers chose to run long, hoping to catch a fortunate yellow, which worked out in the end, as Shane van Gisbergen spun out in the middle of the pit cycle.

Both Byron and Briscoe were among those who had already pitted, losing a large chunk of their track position. There were a few smaller incidents, but nothing of note. However, a spin by Ty Dillon set up a mad dash to end the stage. This is when the pit strategies started to split throughout the field as some chose to pit. Keselowski did not pit, staying out and sweeping the stages over Blaney and Cindric.

Stage 3

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images)

The final stage featured the most chaotic stint of the race, with frequent cautions and wild restarts. It also saw the continuation of Kyle Larson and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott trading paint in some extremely tense racing between the two champions.

For cautions, Denny Hamlin spun in a four-wide situation, Zane Smith got wrecked by Carson Hocevar, Erik Jones spun, SVG went around again with help from Kyle Busch, Ty Dillon had an incident, and Todd Gilliland lost a right-side window that forced a debris yellow.

However, the most notable incident came when a trio of Toyotas got together, with Briscoe tagging Tyler Reddick, sending both Reddick and Christopher Bell around.

During each of these yellows, small groups of drivers chose to pit as they tried to find the winning strategy. But eventually, things finally went green. Briscoe tried his best to challenge Byron, but he never could get close enough as the two-time Daytona 500 champion stretched the fuel and captured the checkered flag.

Photos from IOWA - Race

William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Interval	Pits	Points	Retirement
1	W. Byron Hendrick Motorsports	24	Chevrolet	350	3:17'46.921		6	48
2	C. Briscoe Joe Gibbs Racing	19	Toyota	350	+1.192 3:17'48.113	1.192	7	41
3	B. Keselowski RFK Racing	6	Ford	350	+1.378 3:17'48.299	0.186	6	55
4	R. Blaney Team Penske	12	Ford	350	+1.499 3:17'48.420	0.121	6	49
5	R. Preece RFK Racing	60	Ford	350	+4.199 3:17'51.120	2.700	6	34
6	B. Wallace 23XI Racing	23	Toyota	350	+5.490 3:17'52.411	1.291	11	31
7	A. Bowman Hendrick Motorsports	48	Chevrolet	350	+6.763 3:17'53.684	1.273	6	34
8	C. Hocevar Spire Motorsports	77	Chevrolet	350	+7.263 3:17'54.184	0.500	13	33
9	J. Logano Team Penske	22	Ford	350	+7.465 3:17'54.386	0.202	8	28
10	A. Dillon Richard Childress Racing	3	Chevrolet	350	+7.681 3:17'54.602	0.216	7	28
11	R. Chastain TrackHouse Racing	1	Chevrolet	350	+8.406 3:17'55.327	0.725	8	26
12	A. Cindric Team Penske	2	Ford	350	+8.678 3:17'55.599	0.272	6	42
13	J. Berry Wood Brothers Racing	21	Ford	350	+10.064 3:17'56.985	1.386	6	29
14	C. Elliott Hendrick Motorsports	9	Chevrolet	350	+12.214 3:17'59.135	2.150	7	26
15	J. Nemechek Legacy Motor Club	42	Toyota	350	+12.778 3:17'59.699	0.564	7	22
16	E. Jones Legacy Motor Club	43	Toyota	350	+13.039 3:17'59.960	0.261	9	24
17	C. Bell Joe Gibbs Racing	20	Toyota	350	+13.172 3:18'00.093	0.133	7	20
18	A. Allmendinger Kaulig Racing	16	Chevrolet	350	+13.354 3:18'00.275	0.182	8	21
19	T. Reddick 23XI Racing	45	Toyota	350	+13.384 3:18'00.305	0.030	7	18
20	K. Busch Richard Childress Racing	8	Chevrolet	350	+13.930 3:18'00.851	0.546	7	23
21	T. Gibbs Joe Gibbs Racing	54	Toyota	350	+15.405 3:18'02.326	1.475	6	23
22	C. Buescher RFK Racing	17	Ford	350	+15.815 3:18'02.736	0.410	9	15
23	J. Haley Spire Motorsports	7	Chevrolet	350	+17.373 3:18'04.294	1.558	7	15
24	D. Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing	11	Toyota	350	+18.111 3:18'05.032	0.738	7	13
25	D. Suarez TrackHouse Racing	99	Chevrolet	350	+18.833 3:18'05.754	0.722	7	12
26	C. Custer Haas Factory Team	41	Ford	350	+19.008 3:18'05.929	0.175	8	11
27	M. McDowell Spire Motorsports	71	Chevrolet	350	+20.252 3:18'07.173	1.244	7	10
28	K. Larson Hendrick Motorsports	5	Chevrolet	350	+20.918 3:18'07.839	0.666	8	14
29	N. Gragson Front Row Motorsports	4	Ford	350	+21.842 3:18'08.763	0.924	10	8
30	R. Herbst 23XI Racing	35	Toyota	350	+21.925 3:18'08.846	0.083	9	7
31	S. van Gisbergen TrackHouse Racing	88	Chevrolet	349	+1 Lap 3:17'47.223	1 Lap	14	6
32	C. Ware Rick Ware Racing	51	Ford	349	+1 Lap 3:17'47.466	0.243	9	5
33	R. Stenhouse Jr Hyak Motorsports	47	Chevrolet	347	+3 Laps 3:17'51.737	2 Laps	12	4
34	T. Gilliland Front Row Motorsports	34	Ford	347	+3 Laps 3:18'03.006	11.269	14	3
35	T. Dillon Kaulig Racing	10	Chevrolet	346	+4 Laps 3:18'11.110	1 Lap	12	2
36	Z. Smith Front Row Motorsports	38	Ford	344	+6 Laps 3:18'11.225	2 Laps	12	1
37	J. Gase Garage 66	66	Ford	340	+10 Laps 3:17'59.201	4 Laps	12
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