The No. 24 has lost a few races they should have won. William Byron didn’t let that happen today as he wins the Iowa Corn 350. Rudy Fugel and his team had a long-run strategy, and with all of the cautions in the last stage, they had just enough fuel. The second win of the NASCAR season for Byron.
This is a big moment for William Byron. He won the Daytona 500 for the second year in a row. Since then, nothing. Now, he gets back to Victory Lane weeks before the playoffs begin. Are they peaking at the right time?
No bad pit stop, no running out of fuel, no weird thing at the end of the race. Byron completed this one today in Iowa and is a winner once again.
Darlington, Charlotte, and Michigan were all races that William Byron could have and, honestly, should have won. For one reason or another, it didn’t happen. This is the first top-five finish that the 24 team has had since Nashville. In the eight races between Nashville and Iowa, Byron had an average finish of 24.75. Not ideal.
There is even more good news for Byron, he took over he regular season points lead again. He is now 18 points up on Chase Elliott. He put distance between himself and Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin as well.
William Byron leads 141 laps on way to win
This race was very strange. The track at Iowa Speedway could be really fun and competitive. However, these NASCAR Cup Series drivers were struggling a bit too much on the track. The first stage went by without a caution. There were then two cautions in Stage 2.
During the final stage, there were seven different cautions. It was getting a bit ridiculous at the end there as Todd Gilliland’s passenger side window came out and was lying on the track.
William Byron led a race-high 141 laps today. He was fantastic from start to finish. We saw Byron get into a great battle with Brad Keselowski in the first stage. However, we never got to see it in the final stage as lapped traffic held up the challengers down the stretch.
A great win for Byron. This team can get hot quickly. Going to Watkins Glen next weekend, it won’t be easy, but Byron has everything he needs to be able to win that race as well.