The third time was the charm on Sunday for William Byron. After running out of fuel at both Michigan (while leading) and Indianapolis (running third at the time), costing him a victory both times, the Hendrick Motorsports driver had just enough left in his tank to capture the win at Iowa Speedway.
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After fretting, hoping and praying, not only did Byron have enough to finish the race ahead of the pole-sitter and runner-up Chase Briscoe by 1.192 seconds, followed by Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney and Ryan Preece, but he also still had enough left to do several celebratory burnouts on the frontstretch before heading to victory lane.
It certainly wasn’t easy, though, as Byron went the final 144 laps on the same tank of fuel. Obviously, his gas man packed the fuel cell to the brim on Byron’s final stop, and those extra drops proved to be the difference.
“Man, how about that for some fuel mileage? We’ve had our fair share of things not go our way with fuel mileage,” Byron told USA Network after climbing out of his car. “I’m just super thankful for Rudy (crew chief Rudy Fugle), all these guys, all the engineers back at the shop and just this whole race team.”
Indianapolis winner Bubba Wallace finished sixth, with Alex Bowman, Carson Hocevar, Joey Logano and Austin Dillon rounding out the top 10.
Byron was obviously excited at capturing his second win of the season, along with his win in the season-opening Daytona 500, which he also won in 2024. He dominated, leading 141 laps of the 350-lap event to capture his 15th career Cup win.
It also pushed Byron back into first place in the Cup standings, leading teammate and former points leader Chase Elliott by 18 points.
“We’ve been through a lot this year,” Byron said. “It’s been a lot of growing pains. It’s been tough on us, but it feels really good today to get a win. It honestly felt like we had a good car and just kind of raced it and just tried to be there at the end. Luckily the fuel was enough there at the end.”
Lucky, indeed. Byron, Fugle and the entire No. 24 team were literally holding their breath as he made the last two laps around the 0.875-mile oval. But their confidence never wavered, even after the disappointing finishes at both Michigan and Indianapolis, or finishing outside the top 15 in six of his last eight starts prior to Iowa.
Byron continued, “Our confidence in each other never wavered. I feel like our speed’s been better than it’s ever been and that’s a big reason why we stay confident.
“We just feel like every week we work really hard together and show up prepared and show up fast. We needed just one to go our way and today it did.”
