Shane van Gisbergen spun while running inside the top 20 at Iowa Speedway.
Despite spinning on his own on Lap 170, the Trackhouse Racing driver recovered to be comfortably inside the top 20 until his second spin of the day on Lap 262.
Van Gisbergen had been running 16th when he was tipped into a spin by Kyle Busch in the #8 Richard Childress Racing Camaro.
The first incident resulted in cosmetic damage to the right rear of van Gisbergen’s car and shifted the balance, but not drastically.
However, it was the second incident that, while innocuous from the outside, caused front splitter damage.
Van Gisbergen’s career-best oval finish remains 14th at Charlotte Motor Speedway at the Coca-Cola 600 earlier this year.
“Good rebound from the first one. Not much we could do about the second,” said van Gisbergen’s crew chief Stephen Doran.
“Great restarts all day. We’ll just go to Watkins Glen and execute, do our thing.”
Van Gisbergen replied: “Yep, sorry about the spin guys. Damn, we should have had a good result today.”
The race was won by William Byron in the #24 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro. He pulled off a fuel-saving epic, aided by a litany of caution periods in Stage 3.
Byron was able to make his last tank of fuel last 144 laps, pitting on Lap 206 of 350.
It was his second win of the season and ended a winless streak dating back to this year’s Daytona 500.
It marked something of a redemption for Byron, who ran out of fuel while leading at Michigan earlier this year.
“How about that for some fuel mileage? We’ve had our fair share of things not go out way with fuel mileage,” said Byron.
“Just super thankful for 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 was really good today to get a win.
“Honestly, I felt like we had a good car and just kind of raced it. I 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.”
In total, there were 12 cautions for 72 yellow flag laps – the lion’s share of which came in Stage 2 and Stage 3. That equalled Texas Motor Speedway for the most cautions in a race this season.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Watkins Glen on Monday, August 11 (AEST).
Results: NASCAR Cup Series Iowa Corn 350, Iowa Speedway
Pos
Num
Driver
Team
Laps/Diff
Gap
1
24
William Byron
Hendrick Motorsports
350 laps
2
19
Chase Briscoe
Joe Gibbs Racing
1.192
1.192
3
6
Brad Keselowski
RFK Racing
1.378
0.186
4
12
Ryan Blaney
Team Penske
1.499
0.121
5
60
Ryan Preece
RFK Racing
4.199
2.700
6
23
Bubba Wallace
23XI Racing
5.490
1.291
7
48
Alex Bowman
Hendrick Motorsports
6.763
1.273
8
77
Carson Hocevar
Spire Motorsports
7.263
0.500
9
22
Joey Logano
Team Penske
7.465
0.202
10
3
Austin Dillon
Richard Childress Racing
7.681
0.216
11
1
Ross Chastain
Trackhouse Racing
8.406
0.725
12
2
Austin Cindric
Team Penske
8.678
0.272
13
21
Josh Berry
Wood Brothers Racing
10.064
1.386
14
9
Chase Elliott
Hendrick Motorsports
12.214
2.150
15
42
John Hunter Nemechek
Legacy Motor Club
12.778
0.564
16
43
Erik Jones
Legacy Motor Club
13.039
0.261
17
20
Christopher Bell
Joe Gibbs Racing
13.172
0.133
18
16
AJ Allmendinger
Kaulig Racing
13.354
0.182
19
45
Tyler Reddick
23XI Racing
13.384
0.030
20
8
Kyle Busch
Richard Childress Racing
13.930
0.546
21
54
Ty Gibbs
Joe Gibbs Racing
15.405
1.475
22
17
Chris Buescher
RFK Racing
15.815
0.410
23
7
Justin Haley
Spire Motorsports
17.373
1.558
24
11
Denny Hamlin
Joe Gibbs Racing
18.111
0.738
25
99
Daniel Suarez
Trackhouse Racing
18.833
0.722
26
41
Cole Custer
Haas Factory Team
19.008
0.175
27
71
Michael McDowell
Spire Motorsports
20.252
1.244
28
5
Kyle Larson
Hendrick Motorsports
20.918
0.666
29
4
Noah Gragson
Front Row Motorsports
21.842
0.924
30
35
Riley Herbst
23XI Racing
21.925
0.083
31
88
Shane Van Gisbergen
Trackhouse Racing
1 lap
32
51
Cody Ware
Rick Ware Racing
1 lap
33
47
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Hyak Motorsports
3 laps
2 laps
34
34
Todd Gilliland
Front Row Motorsports
3 laps
35
10
Ty Dillon
Kaulig Racing
4 laps
1 lap
36
38
Zane Smith
Front Row Motorsports
6 laps
2 laps
37
66
Joey Gase
Garage 66
10 laps
4 laps