For the first time since driving from ninth to first on the final lap of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway back in mid-February, Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron found himself back in victory lane at Iowa Speedway on Sunday afternoon.
With that, the driver who has led the point standings for the overwhelming majority of the season found himself back on top, having retaken the top spot from teammate Chase Elliott after Elliott had held it for the past two weekends.
The extra five playoff points Byron scored with the win are huge, taking his season tally from 12 to 17, and the fact that the regular season championship pays an extra 15, versus the extra 10 paid to the runner-up, makes this victory an even bigger deal with just three races remaining on the regular season schedule. Byron has an 18-point advantage over Elliott.
Plus, after having recently been bitten in a number of fuel mileage battles, Byron was able to conserve an incredible amount of fuel to hang on for the victory over Joe Gibbs Racing's Chase Briscoe. It was also his first finish higher than eighth place since his fifth place finish at Nashville Superspeedway more than two months ago.
Despite all of that, he wasn't the biggest winner of the 350-lap Iowa Corn 350 around the four-turn, 0.894-mile (1.439-kilometer) Newton, Iowa oval.
William Byron not the big winner at Iowa
With Byron's win, the season winner total is still at 13. With three races remaining on the regular season schedule, this means that there can no longer be more winners than playoff spots (16).
Had somebody like RFK Racing's Brad Keselowski, who finished in third place after winning the first two stages, won, that winner total would be sitting at 14 with a road course race, a short track race, and a superspeedway race remaining on the calendar, and with six winners from last year having not yet won in 2025.
In the event that there are more winners than playoff spots, the multi-race winners are locked in, but the tiebreaker to determine which single-race winners get in and which don't becomes points.
So Wood Brothers Racing's Josh Berry was particularly happy to see Byron and the No. 24 team find victory lane on Sunday, as he is the lowest placed single-race winner right now, down in a 21st place tie.
The Las Vegas Motor Speedway winner from March finds himself 38 points behind the next lowest winner, Team Penske's Austin Cindric, and has held the distinction of being the lowest placed single-race winner for much of the season.
Now he is safe.
Trackhouse Racing's Shane van Gisbergen is actually the lowest overall winner in a 25th place tie, but he has won three times and is therefore locked in.
Technically, the Cup Series could still see a winner miss this year's playoffs, but it's a longshot. One of the 16 playoff spots goes to the regular season champion, whether he is a winner or not. But the highest non-winner in the point standings is currently 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick, and he is all the way down in sixth place, 97 points behind Byron.
So again, Berry is safe, and he is set for his first career Cup Series playoff appearance at Darlington Raceway at the end of this month.
The Go Bowling at The Glen is the antepenultimate race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series regular season, and it is scheduled to take place this Sunday, August 10. USA Network is set to provide live coverage from Watkins Glen International beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET, so begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action from the regular season's final road course race!