An incident-filled Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol left Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron celebrating in Victory Lane while myriad drivers found trouble at Iowa Speedway on Sunday afternoon.
RELATED: Official results | At-track photos
A season-high 12 cautions altered strategy throughout the final stage, aiding some drivers to excellent finishes and others to poor ones. Here’s who’s heading to Watkins Glen International with momentum on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) and who needs a boost heading to Upstate New York.
THREE UP ⬆️
1. Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Started: 16th
Finished: 7th
What happened: Bowman may not have scored the crucially important victory to lock himself into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, but another stellar day for the No. 48 team kept him firmly in the postseason picture. With his sixth finish of 11th or better in the past seven races, Bowman now sits 63 points ahead of the provisional elimination line with just three races remaining in the regular season. Any number of new winners over the next three weeks could upend any points cushion, but Iowa provided Bowman and Co. a strong performance in which he was inside the top 10 nearly all race long.
What’s next: Crew chief Blake Harris will be tasked with a difficult scenario at Watkins Glen, where Bowman has never finished better than 14th in eight starts — a mark he’s set three times. Will the strategy be to stay out and score stage points? Or will there be another move from the playbook Harris can use to propel Bowman into the postseason?
2. Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota
Started: 15th
Finished: 6th
What happened: Contact with John Hunter Nemechek at Lap 242 put Wallace, last week’s Brickyard 400 winner, into the wall exiting Turn 4 and damaged his right-rear toe link. Repairs put the No. 23 Toyota two laps down within the final 80 laps, but a rash of other cautions allowed Wallace two free passes as the first car one or more laps down when future yellow flags waved. Back on the lead lap with fresher tires, Wallace charged through the field to score consecutive top-10 finishes for the first time since June, when he finished sixth and fourth, respectively, at Nashville Superspeedway and Michigan International Speedway.
What’s next: Road courses have never been Wallace’s strong suit, evidenced in part by his Watkins Glen results, where he has just two top 20s in six starts. But those two positives have come in each of the past two trips to Upstate New York, and Wallace has notably improved on the twisting courses through the NASCAR schedule. The good news for him is that, regardless of the result, he’s still locked into the playoffs thanks to his Brickyard victory.
3. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Started: 18th
Finished: 10th
What happened: Dillon was finally able to put a miserable three months of results in the rearview mirror Sunday, scoring his first top-10 finish since Texas Motor Speedway on May 4. The 2018 Daytona 500 winner was a factor inside the top dozen all day long before netting out in 10th place. The result ends an 11-race stretch in which the No. 3 Chevrolet had finished 15th or worse each week, with four top 20s and two DNFs scattered within that span.
What’s next: Watkins Glen has not treated Dillon well. The 2013 Xfinity Series champion has just three top 20s in 10 starts at the 2.45-mile road course. But Dillon and his team may already be looking one week ahead to Saturday, Aug. 16 at Richmond Raceway, a 0.75-mile tri-oval that shares plenty of similarities with Iowa and where Dillon went to Victory Lane in 2024.
THREE DOWN ⬇️
1. Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Started: 3rd
Finished: 28th
What happened: A rough-and-tumble day on restarts resulted in a miserable afternoon for Larson. Multiple restarts led to contact for Larson, including one with teammate Chase Elliott and another later with fellow dirt racer Christopher Bell. Late contact to the back of Ty Dillon’s bumper created more damage to the nose of Larson’s car and contributed to an uncharacteristic second finish of 28th or worse in the past four weeks.
What’s next: A bounceback is likely at Watkins Glen for Larson, who won consecutive races there in 2021 and 2022. The 2021 Cup champion has finished inside the top 10 in an even half of his 10 career starts at The Glen and is seeking his third top five in the last four races this season.
2. Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Started: 13th
Finished: 27th
What happened: McDowell seemed like a contender for a top-10 finish through much of Sunday’s race at Iowa. But the melee of cautions and on-track incidents never played into the No. 71 team’s favor, sinking McDowell outside the top 20 and en route to his third finish outside the top 25 in the past five weeks.
What’s next: McDowell will enter Watkins Glen in attack mode, understanding the road course presents what could be his best chance at launching into the Cup Series Playoffs from here on out. He’s qualified inside the top 10 in each of the three Next Gen races at The Glen and finished seventh or better twice, the exception coming in 2023 due to an electrical issue after leading 17 laps. McDowell charged to a fourth-place finish at Sonoma in July and led the opening 31 laps of this year’s Chicago Street Race, so an upset is certainly on the table.
3. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Started: 11th
Finished: 24th
What happened: Hamlin had been on a monster tear through the NASCAR Cup Series, placing inside the top five in six of his last eight races prior to Iowa. That came to a screeching halt Sunday as the No. 11 Toyota was nowhere to be found, even spinning through Turns 3 and 4 at Lap 221. In what has been a dominant summer for Hamlin, the Midwest short track marked a rare off weekend and left Hamlin 51 points out of the hunt for the regular-season title.
What’s next: The No. 11 team can get itself back into the Regular Season Championship hunt at The Glen, where Hamlin won in 2016 and has finished inside the top five in five of the last eight races. The Next Gen races haven’t gone as well for Hamlin at Watkins Glen, with finishes of 20th (2022) and 23rd (2024), but he did earn the pole in 2023 before finishing second to William Byron.
