Discover the history of Iowa Speedway, including NASCAR race winners for the Cup, Xfinity, and Truck Series, detailed track facts, and a full gallery of past race images.
CUP Race Winning Drivers
DATE | RACE | WINNER | # | MAKE | ST | TEAM | CREW CHIEF | LAPS | TIME |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
08-2025 | Iowa Corn 350 | William Byron | 24 | Chevrolet | 2 | Hendrick Motorsports | Rudy Fugle | 350 | 03:17:47 |
06-2024 | Iowa Corn 350 Powere… | Ryan Blaney | 12 | Ford | 2 | Team Penske | Jonathan Hassler | 350 | 02:58:37 |
By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service
An extraordinary spat of cautions in Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol allowed William Byron to save an extraordinary amount of fuel, and that proved the difference in Byron’s second victory of the season and first since the DAYTONA 500.
Squeezing 144 laps out of his fuel cell at an Iowa Speedway track where the fuel window is roughly 100 laps, Byron crossed the finish line ahead of a trio of pursuers—pole winner Chase Briscoe, first and second stage winner Brad Keselowski and defending race winner Ryan Blaney—all on different strategies.
Byron’s margin of victory over second-place Briscoe was 1.192 seconds, with Keselowski in third and Blaney in fourth both within a car-length of the runner-up at the finish line.
Byron’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet ran out of fuel during his celebratory burnouts on the frontstretch, forcing him to cut the smoke show short.
“Man, how about that for some fuel mileage?” Byron asked rhetorically after climbing from his car. “We’ve had our fair share of things not go our way with fuel mileage, and just super thankful for (crew chief) Rudy (Fugle), all these guys, all the engineers, all the engineers back at the shop.
“Just this whole race team, we’ve been through a lot this year. It’s been a lot of growing pains. It’s been tough on us. But it feels really good today to get a win.”
After running in the top five for most of last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Byron ran out of fuel in overtime while running third. With Fugle coaxing him repeatedly to save fuel at Iowa, Byron conserved just enough.
And at last, the result of the race matched the speed he has shown consistently this season.
“Honestly, I felt like we had a good car and just kind of raced it and just tried to be there at the end, and we were,” said Byron, who led the first 67 laps and the last 74. “And luckily, the fuel was enough there at the end.
“I think I ran out right there (during the burnout). That’s why I stopped.”
With his first victory at the 0.875-mile short track and the 15th of his career, Byron regained the series lead by 18 points over teammate Chase Elliott, who finished 14th after pitting for fuel on Lap 283 of 350.
What enabled Byron to stretch his fuel to 144 laps was a series of seven quick cautions within 65 laps of the start of the final stage. All told, 12 cautions slowed the race for 72 laps.
Briscoe got close to Byron during the final 64-lap green-flag run but couldn’t challenge for the lead.
“There at the end, I was running William down,” Briscoe said. “I thought I was really in the catbird seat there, and I just got there and kind of stalled out.
“I kind of experienced that when I was leading earlier. I caught the back of the field, and same thing; as soon as I got there, I just kind of died.”
Needing a victory to qualify for the Cup Series Playoffs, Keselowski won the first two stages, but his fuel advantage on the final run was negated by the abundant cautions.
“Just the way the yellows fell,” Keselowski said. “We had so many yellows there in Stage 3 that it got the 24 (Byron) and the 19 (Briscoe) to where they could make it on fuel pitting way outside the window, and we just couldn’t get back by them.
“Got back by a lot of guys; restarted I think 24th there after we pitted and got all the way up to third, but that was as far as I could get.”
Ryan Preece ran fifth and trimmed the lead of Roush Fenway Keselowski teammate Chris Buescher from 42 to 23 points in the battle for what could be the final berth in Playoffs.
Brickyard 400 winner Bubba Wallace rallied from two laps down and overcame damage to his No. 23 Toyota to finish sixth. Alex Bowman was seventh, solidifying his hold on a potential Playoff spot by maintaining a 63-point edge over Preece.
Carson Hocevar came home eighth, followed by Joey Logano and Austin Dillon.
Byron led 141 laps to 81 for Briscoe and 68 for Keselowski.
The quest for the final Playoff spots continues in next Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen on the road course at Watkins Glen International (2 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service
This time, there was no unpleasant surprise waiting for Ryan Blaney near the finish line of a NASCAR Cup Series race.
Grabbing the lead on crew chief Jonathan Hassler’s two-tire call under the final caution of Sunday night’s Iowa Corn 350, Blaney led the final 88 laps of the inaugural Cup race at 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway.
In front of a large contingent of family and friends, the reigning series champion crossed the finish line 0.716 seconds ahead of runner-up William Byron, who was racing on four new tires after a pit stop under caution for Chris Buescher’s accident on Lap 260.
The victory was Blaney’s first of the season and the 11th of his career. Blaney now has won at Iowa Speedway in all three NASCAR national series, having triumphed in the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series in 2012 and the Xfinity Series in 2015.
All told, the race winner led four times for 201 of 350 laps on a track that was repaved in the bottom two lanes in the corners.
“What a cool way to win here. This place means a lot to me and means a lot to my mom (Lisa, from Chariton, Iowa),” said Blaney, who was leading June 2 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway outside St. Louis before running out of fuel on the white-flag lap.
“We had a lot of people here tonight cheering us on, so they willed us to that one. Overall, I really appreciate the whole (No. 12 team). I mean, our car was really fast all night and we got a little bit better through the night, and two tires was a good call there.
“I didn’t know how well I was going to hold on. I started to struggle a little bit at the end but had enough to hang on. I’m super proud of the effort.”
Byron wasn’t surprised Blaney won the race on two fresh tires, given the quality of the Team Penske driver’s No. 12 Ford.
“No, he had a really good car, so he was up front and contending a lot, and him and the 5 (pole winner Kyle Larson) were really good,” Byron said. “So, we were just a step off of that, you know?
“I feel like I just needed to turn the center just a hair better and still kind of maintain the long run. Proud of the effort. It was a really good night, and I feel like we can learn from this and build from it to be a little bit better.”
In a race that featured eight cautions for 49 laps, Chase Elliott finished third, followed by Christopher Bell, who started from the rear of the field in a backup car after blowing a right front tire and crashing in Friday’s practice.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. came home fifth, with Joey Logano, Josh Berry, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski completing the top 10.
The restart after the second stage break changed the entire dynamic of the race. Larson had just taken the green/checkered flag to claim his eighth stage victory of the season.
But on lap 220, one circuit after the final stage went green for the first time, contact from Suarez’s Chevrolet sent Larson’s Camaro spinning into the outside wall on the frontstretch, pinching Denny Hamlin’s Toyota into the barrier in the process.
Larson’s crew eventually repaired the wounded machine, but not until the 2021 champion had lost 31 laps in the garage. Larson finished 34th, 36 laps down and lost the series lead to Elliott, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate.
Larson, who led 80 laps on Sunday before the accident that waylaid him, trails Elliott by eight points with nine races left in the regular season.
XFINITY Race Winning Drivers
By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service
Sam Mayer took control of Saturday’s Hy-Vee Perks 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway after a Lap 221 restart and maintained it the rest of the way to record the first victory for the Haas Factory team and the first in the series for Ford this season.
Mayer won at Iowa for the second straight year, having triumphed in a JR Motorsports Chevrolet last season. The eighth victory of his career ended Sunoco rookie Connor Zilisch’s three-race winning streak.
Driving the No. 41 Haas Factory Team Ford, Mayer edged ahead of pole winner and runner-up Jesse Love on Lap 223 before Brandon Jones spun in oil from Matt DiBenedetto’s Chevrolet to cause the eighth caution of the afternoon.
On the subsequent restart on Lap 234, Mayer streaked away and left Love and other pursuers in his wake. After taking the white flag, Mayer was cruising to the victory when Garrett Smithley’s spin caused the ninth and final caution and froze the field, with Mayer in the winning position.
“This one’s everything right here,” Mayer said. “First win for Haas Factory Team — that’s awesome. This car was fast all day long. I tried to botch it on pit road, but we didn’t.
“I can’t believe it. This is one of the most special wins I have. These guys (Mayer’s team), they love me to death, I love them to death, and we’re just some good ol’ boys trying to go racing.”
After finishing fourth in the first stage, Mayer overshot his No.1 pit stall, which sits at a difficult angle around a curve near the exit from pit road. Mayer restarted 16th on Lap 71 but worked his way back through the field and regained the fourth spot by the end of Stage 2.
“I missed my pit box, but the car was so good it didn’t even matter,” Mayer said. “We ran up through there—no problem. It was great.”
Ross Chastain finished third behind Mayer and Love, with Zilisch running fourth and Harrison Burton fifth.
For practical purposes, Zilisch’s bid for a fourth straight Xfinity Series ran into immediate trouble during the first stage break. After winning Stage 1, Zilisch brought his No. 88 Chevrolet to pit road for service, but the front tire changer failed to get all lugs tight on the left front wheel.
Zilisch restarted 25th on Lap 71 and initially made rapid progress through the field. As the second stage progressed, Zilisch stalled out in traffic, with his Camaro getting increasingly loose behind other cars.
The 19-year-old phenom finished the stage in 17th-place and restarted the final stage in the same position on Lap 130. He climbed as high as third in the running order but couldn’t find a way to prevail during a succession of late restarts.
In fact, Zilisch’s car broke loose in a three-wide scenario with teammates Chastain and reigning series champion Justin Allgaier on Lap 214. Contact from Zilisch’s car knocked Chastain sideways into Allgaier’s Chevrolet.
With Allgaier finishing 16th, he and Zilisch’s are now tied for the series lead with four races left in the regular season.
Burton took a major step toward the Playoffs with his second top-five finish of the season. He’s now 11th on the current Playoff grid, 17 points ahead of 12th-place Ryan Sieg and 19 points ahead of cousin Jeb Burton, the first driver below the elimination line.
Jeb Burton finished 29th Saturday after dealing with a cracked track bar and suffering through the afternoon with an ill-handling car.
Driving the No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet after the abrupt release of Josh Williams from the ride, Carson Hocevar finished sixth, followed by Sheldon Creed, Ryan Sieg, Carson Kvapil and Christian Eckes.
By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service
In a race of tire management and hurt feelings, Sam Mayer held off Riley Herbst in overtime to win Saturday’s Hy-Vee Perks 250 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ return to Iowa Speedway after a four-year hiatus.
Mayer’s No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet crossed the finish line 0.146 seconds ahead of the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Herbst, who felt Mayer had abused him earlier in the race.
The victory was Mayer’s second of the season and the sixth of his career, all coming within the last 29 races in the series.
“We struggled (Friday in practice), and the team went to work,” said Mayer, who started fifth when qualifying was canceled because of rain earlier on Saturday. “Obviously, we did pretty good overnight, making different changes on this race car.
“I feel really good. I could do another 100 laps — with a race car like this, it would be a lot of fun.”
Mayer held the lead when John Hunter Nemechek slammed the outside wall in Turn 4 with his left front tire down, the result of close quarters racing with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Sheldon Creed.
That accident on Lap 245 caused the ninth caution of the afternoon and sent the race three laps beyond its scheduled distance.
In the overtime, Mayer and Herbst took the green flag side-by-side and remained in that posture into Turn 1, but Mayer cleared the race runner-up off Turn 2 and held the top spot the rest of the way.
“I like racing Sam, but Stage 1 or 2 he just absolutely brooms me,” Herbst said. “We were racing clean for fourth, and he takes us back to 10th and then doors me down the back straightaway before the green-white-checker.
“It’s just frustrating the way he wants to do that, but all in all, it was fun. I’m happy to be back on ovals. The speed is back in the 98.”
Corey Heim finished a career-best third after starting 22nd because of the qualifying rainout. Sammy Smith was fourth, followed by Creed, who survived the dust-up with Nemechek after a restart on Lap 238.
Cole Custer, Matt DiBenedetto, Chandler Smith, Ross Chastain and Daniel Dye completed the top 10.
If any driver had cause for frustration, it was Chandler Smith, who led a race-high 131 laps and swept the first two stages. Smith restarted third to begin the final stage, but lack of short-run speed quickly dropped him to 12th, and he never recovered.
Austin Hill likewise had reason to bemoan his result. Overcoming early handling issues, Hill charged into the top five in the final stage, but a cut left front tire sent him hard into the Turn 1 wall on Lap 218, causing the seventh caution.
Hill finished 29th and dropped to third in the series standings, 41 points behind Custer, the current leader and defending series champion. Chandler Smith, second in the standings, trails Custer by one point.
TRUCKS Race Winning Drivers
DATE | RACE | WINNER | # | MAKE | ST | TEAM | CREW CHIEF | LAPS | TIME |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
06-2019 | M&M'S 200 presented … | Brett Moffitt | 24 | Chevrolet | 6th | GMS Racing | Jerry Baxter | 200 | 01:40:18 |
06-2018 | M&M's 200 presented … | Brett Moffitt | 16 | Toyota | 16th | Hattori Racing | Scott Zipadelli | 200 | 01:56:45 |
06-2017 | M&M's 200 presented … | John Hunter Nemechek | 8 | Chevrolet | 5th | NEMCO Motorsports | Gere Kennon | 200 | 01:47:42 |
06-2016 | Speediatrics 200 | William Byron | 9 | Toyota | 5th | Kyle Busch Motorsports | Rudy Fugle | 200 | 01:53:16 |
06-2015 | American Ethanol 200 | Erik Jones | 4 | Toyota | 1st | Kyle Busch Motorsports | Rudy Fugle | 200 | 01:48:33 |
No race recap articles available.
Track groupings used in my driver projections.
Compare the degree of track banking at this and other groups of tracks.
No trivia for this track.
The track opened in September 2006 with the Soy Biodiesel 250, won by Woody Howard, for the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Four Champions playoff. The Indy Racing League announced a race there on June 24, 2007, the Iowa Corn Indy 250, which was won by Dario Franchitti, who barely nipped Marco Andretti at the finish line. The track also secured a combined NASCAR Camping World East-West race where results counted towards both series' championships. That race delivered a dramatic battle between 17-year-old Joey Logano from the Busch East Series, who defeated Daytona 500 champion Kevin Harvick, 1998 West Series champion, who represented the West Series at the end of the race.
The track was designed with influence from Rusty Wallace and patterned after Richmond Raceway as a D-shaped oval, a short track where Wallace was very successful. The track length is disputed by the two major series that run at Iowa. The NASCAR timing and scoring use a length of 0.875 miles (1.408 km). The IndyCar Series timing and scoring use a length of 0.894 miles (1.439 km).
The track was awarded a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race and a NASCAR Nationwide Series race in 2009.
On July 5, 2011 it was announced that the Manatt family, builders and primary owners of the Iowa Speedway through the holding company U.S. Motorsports Corporation, had sold their majority interest to the Clement family, owners of Featherlite Incorporated. "It was our privilege to help build the track five years ago, and like a proud parent, we've enjoyed watching it thrive and grow," said company president Brad Manatt. Featherlite Incorporated already has a long-standing relationship with NASCAR. Many race teams use Featherlite Trailers and Featherlite Coaches for the transport of cars and staff. Rusty Wallace will remain a minority owner in the track.
Following news of financial issues at the track, the facility was purchased by NASCAR by November 2013.