NASCAR Cup Series driver William Byron (24) wins the Iowa Corn 350 at the Iowa Speedway. Reese Strickland-Imagn Images

Lady luck finally smiled on William Byron at Iowa Speedway

By Samuel Stubbs | Last updated Aug 3, 2025 9:24 PM ET

It almost seemed as if William Byron used up all of his good fortune for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season on the final lap of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 16, where a massive crash on the final lap parted the sea for his No. 24 Chevrolet to squeak through and claim a second-consecutive win in NASCAR's most prestigious race.

Since his season-opening victory, Byron and the No. 24 team hadn't been able to get back into the win column.

Victory didn't find Byron at Darlington on April 6, when he led the first 243 laps of the race. It didn't find him in the Coca-Cola 600 on May 25, when he led 283 laps but finished second to Ross Chastain, nor did it find him at Michigan on June 8 when he led 98 laps but ran out of fuel in the closing laps.

Despite one of the best drivers in the field driving one of the fastest cars in the field, victory lane continued to elude the No. 24 team.

That was until Sunday, when Byron saved enough gas to score his second win of 2025 in the Iowa Corn 350 and retake the Cup Series points lead.

Byron was forced to save as hard as he possibly could in the closing laps, while Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney pedaled as hard they could in an attempt to catch up to the two-time Daytona 500 champion.

But neither Byron's lead or his fuel pressure wavered in the waning moments of Sunday's race.

After finishing outside of the top 10 in six of the last eight races, the win is a much-needed shot in the arm for Byron as the Cup Series playoffs loom.

His second win of the season came at the perfect time. pic.twitter.com/uOInAb54MM
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 3, 2025

"I feel like we really needed to win a race," Byron said in his post-race news conference on Sunday evening. "I feel like we deserved to win a race based on how we've run all year. It just wasn't happening. We had to figure out how to do everything right, and things still were not really working out in our favor.

"This is just a big relief to have one go our way."

As Byron chases a third consecutive Championship 4 appearance and his first Cup Series title, he'll do so free of the monkey that has been on his back ever since the confetti rained down on him in Daytona Beach in February.

"The win was big for us," said Rudy Fugle, Byron's crew chief. "Since Michigan, we've had really fast cars still, haven't gotten many good finishes. This year, I don't know that there's a ton wrong other than circumstance. The win is huge to solidify everything that Hendrick (Motorsports) is doing."

Samuel Stubbs

Hailing from the same neck of the woods as NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, Samuel has been covering NASCAR for Yardbarker since February 2024. He has been a member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) since October of 2024. When he’s not writing about racing, Samuel covers Arkansas Razorback basketball for Yardbarker

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