By Roy J. Akers — www.skyviewsports.net
With 13 drivers winning races this season , and only four chances to go, there is at least one winning driver in 2025 on the bubble if there are four new winners. So, how does this happen? Josh Berry is the lowest ranked driver that has won a race this season. If four new drivers win the remaining four races, the lowest driver in points is out. Right now, that would be Berry. SVG does have less points than Berry, but he has won three times. The point is really moot on all of this. Why? The chances of four NEW drivers winning the final four races is like hitting the Power Ball. Only in this case, we are talking Draft Kings taking your money.
It’s time to drop the green flag.
First Stage 70 Laps — Top 8 Stage One >>
Chase Briscoe and William Byron bring the field to lap one of the Iowa Corn 350. Briscoe bleeds spots and falls to 5th by lap five. By lap 25, Byron, Austin Cindric, and Brad Keselowski have established a significant lead, pulling 3.6 seconds ahead of fourth-place Briscoe. By lap 50, Keselowski and Byron are dueling for the lead, and Byron comes out with the lead. By lap 56, Byron puts Kyle Busch a lap down. Byron complains about being tight and losing balance with ten to go. Both BK and Cindric go around Byron with three laps to go. Brad Keselowski claims victory in Stage 1, followed by Austin Cindric in second place. William Byron secures third, with Ryan Blaney and Chase Briscoe rounding out the top five positions. BK wins his first Stage in ’25.
Pit Stop Strategy
All lead lap cars make their way to pit road. Chase Briscoe executes a swift stop, emerging as the first car off pit road. William Byron and Ryan Blaney follow closely behind, securing the second and third positions respectively as they exit the pits.
Stage Two
Briscoe returns to the lead after coming off of pit road first. Blaney, Kelelowski and Byron follow. Kyle Larson enters the top five by lap 18. By lap 70, drivers start making green flag pit stops. Shane Van Gisbergen spins in Turn 2 from eighth position and backs into the wall, bringing out the caution flag.
All lead lap cars enter pit road. Ryan Blaney emerges as the leader off pit road, followed by Brad Keselowski and Austin Cindric. Cody Ware spins on the front straight and Blaney and Keselowski were dueling for the lead. As the Stage winds down, Ty Dillon understeers into David Gilliland and goes into the wall, bringing a caution. After not winning a Stage in 2025, BK has won the first two stages at Iowa.
Final Stage
Keselowski leads the field to green and just that quickly, Denny Hamlin goes around bringing a caution flag. By lap 229, Zane Smith goes into the wall, ending his day. Keselowski and Busch pit. Ryan Blaney leads the restart from the outside lane, with Austin Cindric on the inside. As they reach the backstretch, Blaney successfully clears Cindric to secure the lead. Erik Jones spins into the infield and brings about the fourth caution of the final Stage on lap 242 with over 100 laps to go.
Big shakeups with 100 laps to go as Cindric, Josh Berry, and Chase Elliott 1-3 with Austin Dillon fourth. Lap 253 brings about multiple machines getting loose Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson make contact battling near sixth position off Turn 4. Kyle Larson bounces off the wall, but both drivers continue. Elliott and Cindric bring the field to green on lap 261, and machines are two and three wide. On lap 270, Ty Dillon spins on the frontstretch from 36th position, bringing out the caution flag. His day is done and this Final Stage has seven cautions with just under 90 short track laps to go.
Elliott and Byron bring the field to green with 74 laps to go with Byron pulling ahead. Big surprises are John Hunter Nemechek and Carson Hocevar. Keselowski is running 7th. Thirty one- of 37 cars are on the lead lap and just laps later, debris is on the track bringing yet… another caution. With pit stops, Berry is the new race leader. Lap 295 finds Hocevar getting loose and nearly getting into the #6. Byron continues to lead Briscoe, Preece, and Bowman with 50 laps left. Preece needs a win to clinch and Bowman is not in dire point shape, and needs to do the same. The big concern is whether Byron has enough Sunoco fuel to finish. Briscoe has 20 more laps of fuel and the #24 is hoping for more cautions. With 32 to go, Byron leads Briscoe by .30 of a second. Keselowski, Preece, and Bowman are 3-4-5 about 2.5 seconds behind. Byron’s fuel gauge is trickling down with Briscoe and Keselowski in position to pounce. With crew members heads in their hands, they are trying to will Byron to the finish. Briscoe Reddick and Keselowski are right behind Byron. Byron nurses his machine to the victory.
Checkered Flag
William Byron’s win is his second of the year and his first in nearly six months of racing. Byron’s teammate Alex Bowman is looking good on points and finishes 7th. A question by the media to Bowman. “How important was it to get back to the winning side and get things pointed in the right direction as we get closer to the playoffs?“
“Yeah, it’s been tough results-wise, but man we have had speed. It’s just been a couple of things here and there that just didn’t go our way and today we got the cautions that we needed. I think the real play was when we took four tires there on the last pit stop, which felt like an eternity ago. We just were on the good side of tire life as well; able to have some good restarts and just get our way forward.”
Who Said It?
Austin Dillon finishes 10th
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet – Finished: 10th
“Top-10 for our Get Bioethanol Chevrolet. That feels like a win with the way things have been going. We had a really fast car today. Cautions did not go our way. I feel like we have a top-five car for sure if things had played out a bit differently. It was a blast out there and felt good to race up front with those guys and be in contention.”
Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet –
Finished: 7th – “I got the right-rear tire really hot on that last restart and hurt myself there. I got a bad restart. We came down in second gear and William really slowed the pace down, but I knew he was in second too so I thought it would be OK. The No. 19 (Chase Briscoe) just hammered him and got him going. I got pinned on the bottom; slid the right-rear a couple of times and got it hot. That was on me. I just need to do a better job there. But overall, just proud of this No. 48 Ally Chevrolet team. Once this tire seems to get hot, it seems like it just tanks and you can’t really get it back. I just tried to take care of it from then on. Honestly, I needed to just not speed on pit road early in the race. That hurt us, but it was a good day overcoming that.”
Factoids that May Interest only me
Byron wins his first race since the season-opening race at Daytona.
Fantasy
After qualifying on Saturday, I made NO changes to my lineup. Keselowski qualified well and led multiple laps on Sunday. The results on this were mixed.
The Kyle Larson team earns 184 points. All but ten from the race. Best pick, Carson Hocevar who finished 7th and earned 35 points. Worst pick, not picking up Brad Keselowski on Sunday AM and dropping Bell or Chastain.
Tale of the Tape
Roy J. Akers covers NASCAR and motorsports for www.skyviewsports.net
