Ty Gibbs holds off Bell to win his second race of the year in Iowa

Ty Gibbs exited the pits with two new tires on lap 290, and that move was enough to get him past Christopher Bell and win the Iowa Corn 350 at the NASCAR Cup Series, the first race back after the summer break. The call by Tyler Allen, crew chief for the No. 54 car, was the difference in a race that Bell had controlled for much of the afternoon and that ended with yet another runner-up finish in a season full of them. He has finished second seven times in 23 races, four of them in the last five outings. The most recent had been two weeks earlier at Indianapolis, when Corey Heim beat him by two tenths of a second.

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Bell led 108 laps, pressured Gibbs until the final corner, and searched high, low, and tight behind his rear bumper for a mistake from the No. 54 Toyota. Getting out of the car, he described this second-place finish as one of the ones that hurt. "Ty did a great job managing the race. He was sliding around and moving, but he never made a mistake," he said. Gibbs, who had lost 25 positions on his first pit stop due to a slow stop, stayed composed all afternoon and explained that the difference between two tires and four was just a bit more grip and a tighter balance. "I can't do anything, just go out and race with what they give me," he said of his team's call.

Allen explained that the move was based on data gathered during practice and on the fact that the left-side tires barely wore out. "It was the only way to beat the No. 20. We knew they were going to take four, so we took the right sides and trusted Ty to do the rest," he detailed. Joe Gibbs, present at the press conference, said the team had gone through tough times in recent years and that seeing the current state of his four teams gives him a confidence he didn't have before. "Our dream was to have four cars capable of winning when we get to the track. Now I think we're at that point," he stated.

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Gibbs' victory shook up the top of the overall standings. The No. 54 Toyota jumped from fourth to second with 820 points, 103 behind Denny Hamlin, who maintains the lead with 923 despite racing with brake issues throughout the event. "I didn't know where the car was going to land in each corner. It was crazy having to drive like that the whole time," Hamlin explained after finishing fifth. Ryan Blaney remains third with 813 points. Tyler Reddick, who was second before the break, fell to fourth with 803 after being involved in the costliest incident of the day.

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Reddick lost the rear of his Toyota in turn 2 on lap 4 and collected Erik Jones' Camry, sending both into the wall. Both were knocked out of the race. The blow was double for Reddick. He dropped two positions in the standings and fell to 120 points behind Hamlin with only three races remaining before the Chase cutoff. Jones, who needed points to get closer to the playoff cut line, left Iowa 20th in the standings, 50 points behind Austin Cindric, the last driver in the playoff picture. "It's a mountain right now," admitted Jones. Reddick apologized for the crash. "We took ourselves out and also a teammate who is fighting for the Chase," he said.

Kyle Larson, 10th in the championship, was involved in a crash with his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman on lap 149, when John Hunter Nemechek pushed him up the track and created a four-wide situation on the front stretch. Larson finished 18 laps down in 33rd place. It was his fourth consecutive incident, a streak that already included troubles at Chicagoland, Atlanta, North Wilkesboro, and now Iowa. Shane van Gisbergen spun during the race, finished three laps down in 30th, and remains 15th in the standings with a 47-point margin over the Chase cutline.

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Ryan Blaney started from pole, led 130 laps, the most of any driver, and won stage 1, but finished third, six seconds behind the winner. Josh Berry was fourth in the Wood Brothers Racing Ford, scoring his first top-five finish of the season. Chase Briscoe was sixth, Ross Chastain seventh, AJ Allmendinger eighth, William Byron ninth, and Austin Dillon tenth. The Cup Series returns on August 16 at New Hampshire.

Iowa Corn 350 2026

Pos	Nº	driver	team	brand	time
1	#54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	-
2	#20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	+0.25s
3	#12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	+6.22s
4	#21	Josh Berry	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	+8.24s
5	#11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	+12.44s
6	#19	Chase Briscoe	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	+13.07s
7	#1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing	Chevrolet	+15.15s
8	#16	AJ Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	+21.65s
9	#24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	+21.97s
10	#3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	+23.58s
11	#88	Connor Zilisch #	Trackhouse Racing	Chevrolet	+1 vuelta
12	#23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	+1 vuelta
13	#17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	+1 vuelta
14	#22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	+1 vuelta
15	#9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	+1 vuelta
16	#38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	+1 vuelta
17	#4	Noah Gragson	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	+1 vuelta
18	#47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	HYAK Motorsports	Chevrolet	+1 vuelta
19	#42	John Hunter Nemechek	Legacy Motor Club	Toyota	+1 vuelta
20	#60	Ryan Preece	RFK Racing	Ford	+1 vuelta
21	#35	Riley Herbst	23XI Racing	Toyota	+1 vuelta
22	#34	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	+1 vuelta
23	#7	Daniel Suarez	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	+1 vuelta
24	#10	Ty Dillon	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	+1 vuelta
25	#71	Michael McDowell	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	+1 vuelta
26	#33	Austin Hill(i)	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	+1 vuelta
27	#6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	+2 vueltas
28	#41	Cole Custer	Haas Factory Team	Chevrolet	+2 vueltas
29	#2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	+2 vueltas
30	#97	Shane Van Gisbergen	Trackhouse Racing	Chevrolet	+3 vueltas
31	#77	Carson Hocevar	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	+3 vueltas
32	#51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	+3 vueltas
33	#5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	+18 vueltas
34	#48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	+156 vueltas
35	#43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Toyota	+346 vueltas
36	#45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	+347 vueltas