NEWTON, Iowa — An extraordinary spat of cautions in Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol allowed William Byron to save an extraordinary amount of fuel, and that proved the difference in Byron’s second victory of the season and first since the DAYTONA 500.
Squeezing 144 laps out of his fuel cell at a sold-out Iowa Speedway track where the fuel window is roughly 100 laps, Byron crossed the finish line ahead of a trio of pursuers—pole winner Chase Briscoe, first and second stage winner Brad Keselowski and defending race winner Ryan Blaney—all on different strategies.
Byron’s margin of victory over second-place Briscoe was 1.192 seconds, with Keselowski in third and Blaney in fourth both within a car-length of the runner-up at the finish line.
Byron’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet ran out of fuel during his celebratory burnouts on the frontstretch, forcing him to cut the smoke show short.
“Man, how about that for some fuel mileage?” Byron asked rhetorically after climbing from his car. “We’ve had our fair share of things not go our way with fuel mileage, and just super thankful for (crew chief) Rudy (Fugle), 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.”
After running in the top five for most of last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Byron ran out of fuel in overtime while running third. With Fugle coaxing him repeatedly to save fuel at Iowa, Byron conserved just enough.
And at last, the result of the race matched the speed he has shown consistently this season.
“Honestly, I 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, who led the first 67 laps and the last 74. “And luckily, the fuel was enough there at the end.
“I think I ran out right there (during the burnout). That’s why I stopped.”
With his first victory at the 0.875-mile short track and the 15th of his career, Byron regained the series lead by 18 points over teammate Chase Elliott, who finished 14th after pitting for fuel on Lap 283 of 350.
What enabled Byron to stretch his fuel to 144 laps was a series of seven quick cautions within 65 laps of the start of the final stage. All told, 12 cautions slowed the race for 72 laps.
Briscoe got close to Byron during the final 64-lap green-flag run but couldn’t challenge for the lead.
“There at the end, I was running William down,” Briscoe said. “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.”
Needing a victory to qualify for the Cup Series Playoffs, Keselowski won the first two stages, but his fuel advantage on the final run was negated by the abundant cautions.
“Just the way the yellows fell,” Keselowski said. “We had so many yellows there in Stage 3 that it got the 24 (Byron) and the 19 (Briscoe) to where they could make it on fuel pitting way outside the window, and we just couldn’t get back by them.
“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.”
Ryan Preece ran fifth and trimmed the lead of Roush Fenway Keselowski teammate Chris Buescher from 42 to 23 points in the battle for what could be the final berth in Playoffs.
Brickyard 400 winner Bubba Wallace rallied from two laps down and overcame damage to his No. 23 Toyota to finish sixth. Alex Bowman was seventh, solidifying his hold on a potential Playoff spot by maintaining a 63-point edge over Preece.
Carson Hocevar came home eighth, followed by Joey Logano and Austin Dillon.
Byron led 141 laps to 81 for Briscoe and 68 for Keselowski.
The quest for the final Playoff spots continues in next Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen on the road course at Watkins Glen International (2 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).