Byron returns to a track he owns
William Byron heads to Iowa Speedway this weekend as the defending winner of the Iowa Corn 350, one of the last four races before NASCAR sets its 16-driver playoff field. The scheduled 350-lap event in Newton runs Sunday afternoon, and Byron’s No. 24 arrives with recent history on his side at the short track.
Iowa has produced tight finishes since the Cup Series arrived. Ryan Blaney won the inaugural 2024 running by leading 201 laps and edging Byron by 0.716 seconds. A year later, Byron flipped the result and took the checkered flag himself. Blaney’s No. 12 and Byron’s No. 24 again shape up as cars to watch, though the standings now carry as much weight as the win.
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A crowded fight for the top 16
Denny Hamlin leads the points and has already locked in a playoff berth alongside Tyler Reddick, Blaney and Ty Gibbs. Below them, the math tightens. Carson Hocevar, the highest-running Chevrolet driver in fifth, holds only a 29-point cushion over Christopher Bell in 10th.
Four drivers separate that pair, and together they own just three wins: Chase Elliott sits sixth with two victories, three points back of Hocevar, followed by Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher. From 13th-place Joey Logano down to Brad Keselowski in 19th, the drivers chasing a top-16 spot have the most to gain as the regular season winds toward its Daytona finale.
Hendrick’s strange slump
The numbers around Hendrick Motorsports tell an unfamiliar story. The organization owns 15 Cup titles and 322 wins since opening in 1984, yet it has gone three straight races without a single driver inside the top 10, a drought it last endured in 2020. Byron running 12th, Hamlin joked on his podcast, is “mind-boggling.”
Rising star Corey Heim has matched Hendrick’s entire four-car stable in wins this season, eight starts against 88 combined. Alex Bowman, 33, sits 29th after missing four races with vertigo and plans to retire from full-time Cup racing after 2027. A Byron win Sunday would quiet the noise in a hurry.
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