After nearly six months, Daytona 500 winner William Byron finally found himself in victory lane again on Sunday afternoon at Iowa Speedway. He conserved enough fuel to hold off Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski and a hard-charging Ryan Blaney in the closing laps of the Iowa Corn 350.
Byron has led the point standings for most of the 2025 season so far, but following the race at Dover Motor Speedway two weekends prior, Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott took over at the top. Elliott retained the lead after the following weekend's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Elliott taking the lead away from Byron marked the first points lead change since the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway back in May, when Byron took it away from teammate Kyle Larson after Larson held it for just one race following his most recent victory at Kansas Speedway.
William Byron retakes NASCAR points lead
With Elliott finishing Sunday's race in 14th place, Byron is back on top, 18 points ahead of the driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet in the battle for the regular season championship and the bonus 15 playoff points that come with being the regular season champion. The runner-up is awarded 10 extra, while third place is awarded eight, down to one for 10th.
Larson remains in third place in the point standings, 45 points behind Byron after a miserable 28th place outing. Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin is the only other driver still realistically in striking distance of the top spot, and he fell to 51 points back with a dismal 24th place effort.
Byron has led the standings after 18 of the 23 races that have been contested so far this season, though interestingly enough, he was not the points leader following his second consecutive season-opening Daytona 500 win. Team Penske's Ryan Blaney led the standings after the season opener and the season's second race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Blaney finds himself in seventh place in the point standings, 105 points out of the lead. Fifth and sixth place currently belong to Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell (-86) and Tyler Reddick (-97), respectively.
The antepenultimate race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series regular season is the Go Bowling at The Glen, which is set to be shown live on USA Network from Watkins Glen International beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, August 10. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss it!