"Our confidence never wavered": William Byron clinches Iowa Corn 350 victory, holding off Chase Briscoe with fuel strategy tactic 

William Byron emerged victorious in a tricky fuel gamble during the Iowa Corn 350 Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway on Sunday, August 3. The Hendrick Motorsports driver did not stop even once through the last 144 laps of the 350-lap event, and bagged his second win of the season and his 15th overall.

Byron lost fuel races twice this season at Michigan and Indianapolis. Hungry for a win, the reigning Daytona 500 winner needed things to go his way. And this time, they did.

Describing the emotion of winning the hectic fuel-conserving race, Byron told USA's Marty Snider:

“We've had our fair share of things not go our way with fuel mileage, and just super thankful for Rudy (Fugle, crew chief), all these guys, all the engineers back at the shop...just this whole race team. We've been through a lot this year.“

However, Byron and his team never lost hope, nor did they lack confidence; thanks to the speed of their No. 24 Chevy Camaro. The Charlotte, North Carolina-native won the final stage of Sunday’s event by 1.192 seconds over pole-sitter and runner-up Chase Briscoe.

“Our confidence in each other never wavered,” Byron continued. “I feel like our speed's been better than it's ever been, and that's a big reason why we stay confident. I feel like every week we work really hard together and show up prepared, show up fast.”

With that, William Byron is back to being the regular season points leader, 18 points ahead of his teammate and former Cup Series champion, Chase Elliott. His other teammate, Kyle Larson, sits third on the list with 725 points.

“It’s on the edge”: William Byron analyzes “racing product” at Iowa Speedway

William Byron now has wins at Iowa in the Cup Series, the Xfinity Series, and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. So, there’s no arguing that the driver knows his way around the 0.875-mile, short track in Newton, Iowa.

Following Sunday’s race, the Chevy star revealed what he thought of the racing product at Iowa Speedway. Passing was difficult, as it often is with the NextGen car, and the harder tires kept everyone on the edge.

“It was about what I expected,” Byron said in a statement. “It was tough to pass. The tires are really on edge. I think the tire is hard, and it probably has to be because the surface is fast in the middle of the corner. You're just really — on entry it's tough.” “Yeah, it's on the edge, which is something - I feel like that's something to be happy and proud of, too, is just how edgy the cars were to drive and being able to put a race together like that with minimal mistakes was pretty cool,” he added.

Next up for William Byron is the Go Bowling at Watkins Glen International. In six starts at the 2.45-mile road course, the speedster won once and picked two top-10s in 2018 (P8) and 2021 (P6).

Scheduled for next Sunday, August 10, the 90-lap race will be televised in the USA (2 p.m. ET onwards), with radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Get the latest NASCAR All-Star race news, Xfinity Series updates, breaking news, rumors, and today’s top stories with the latest news on NASCAR.

Edited by Samya Majumdar