By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
After week off, William Byron heads to Iowa Speedway with confidence
In a season of struggle, and with the Chase approaching, William Byron could use a turnaround—and Iowa Speedway may be the perfect place to find it.
After a rare week off, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to the 0.875-mile short track for Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol (3:30 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Byron is the defending race winner, but after six straight seasons of at least one victory, the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has yet to post a win this year.
Iowa Speedway might just be the ideal place for Byron to end the dry spell, which has reached 23 races. In 2016, he won there in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series.
The following year, he picked up his first NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory at the Newton, Iowa, track that was the brainchild of leading designer and NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace.
In 22 races this season, Byron has posted just five top fives and nine top 10s. The 28-year-old from Charlotte, N.C., is 12th in the Cup Series standings, a relatively comfortable 88 points above the current cut line for the Chase, with the next four races providing an opportunity to improve that position.
“Iowa is just a track that has always clicked for me and that I really love,” Byron said. “I’ve had success there in all three series, and last year’s win really felt great to complete the sweep.
“I think having the off time, and this being the next track we go to, really gives our team confidence of what we can accomplish. I’m looking forward to it.”
Sunday’s race is the fourth of seven short track contests this season. Byron is the only driver to have won twice in the last 10 short-track races (Iowa and Martinsville last year), but the last six short-track races have been won by six different drivers.
In the two Cup races held at Iowa, five drivers have finished in the top 10 in both events—Byron, who was second in 2024; Ryan Blaney, the winner in 2024; Brad Keselowski; Alex Bowman; and Joey Logano.
Blaney, who was fourth last year, boasts the best average running position at Iowa of 3.9, with Byron second at 5.6. Blaney and Byron each led the most laps in their respective victories, Blaney with 201 of 350 in 2024, and Byron with 141 of 350 last year.
Kyle Larson is another driver who could use a turnaround at Iowa, but in order to break his 46-race winless streak, he’ll have to make a quantum improvement at the track. Larson’s average finish there is a dismal 31.0.
Among the top three drivers in the standings, third-place Blaney holds a decided edge over series leader Denny Hamlin and second-place Tyler Reddick. Hamlin finished 24th in both Iowa races. Reddick, who trails Hamlin by 84 points, posted respective results of 22nd and 19th.
Blaney is 120 points behind Hamlin as the Cup Series heads to Iowa, Richmond, New Hampshire and Daytona to complete the regular season.
After a recent review following the NASCAR weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in late July, all three NASCAR Series will race under new stage break procedures for the rest of the season.
If a caution falls within 10 or fewer laps prior to the advertised end of Stage 1 or Stage 2, the stage will be deemed official at the time of caution. The leader will return to the start/finish line to receive the green/checkered flag along with the yellow. The caution process that follows will serve as the stage break.
The finishing order of the stage, with the top 10 scoring points, will be determined using all available resources, just as it is whenever points are paid.
Two-time defending champ Sam Mayer seeks first 2026 win at Iowa
NASCAR Cup Series drivers have raced at Iowa Speedway only twice. For the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, however, Iowa is familiar territory.
The latter series will race at the 0.875-mile short track for the 23rd time in Saturday’s Hy-Vee Perks 250 (5 p.m. ET on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
After a four-year absence, the O’Reilly Series returned to the short track in Newton, Iowa, in 2024. Sam Mayer won that race and successfully defended his victory last year, giving him a 100-percent success rate at the track.
That puts Mayer in an elite group of drivers in the series who have “batted 1.000” in multiple starts at a particular venue. Christopher Bell triumphed in all four of his New Hampshire starts, and Connor Zilisch has won all three times he has raced at Watkins Glen.
Other drivers who, like Mayer, have gone 2-0 at a particular track are Shane van Gisbergen at the Chicago Street Course and Chandler Smith at Richmond.
Like William Byron in the NASCAR Cup Series, Mayer is winless this season coming to Iowa as the defending winner. His victory last year was the first for the newly formed Haas Factory team. In 2024, he took the checkered flag in a JR Motorsports Chevrolet.
Mayer and Justin Allgaier (2018) are the only former Iowa winners in the field for Saturday’s race. Allgaier already has clinched top seeding in the Chase, which begins Sept. 5 at Darlington Raceway after events at Iowa and Daytona International Speedway.
Allgaier may have locked up the regular-season title, but the race for the final Chase spots is very much in doubt. Three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers surround the current cut line, with Brent Crews and Taylor Gray 11th and 12th in the standings and William Sawalich (13th) the first driver out.
Sawalich trails Gray by seven points, with JR Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth 20 points back in 14th. Caruth, however, returns to his preferred No. 88 JRM ride for the rest of the season after driving the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet for the last time at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“I’m really happy to get back with (crew chief) Mardy (Lindley) and everyone on the No. 88 team for the rest of the season,” Caruth said. “I haven’t raced at Iowa since the repave (before the 2024 race), so it’ll definitely be a different challenge than the last time I was there.
“The track has changed quite a bit, so we’ll spend practice learning what it wants and making sure we’re ready for the race. We’ve had speed on tracks like this all season, and if we can execute all day, I think we’ll have a good shot at a strong finish and gaining some ground in the points.”
