Ty Gibbs Wins Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol

Ty Gibbs celebrates Iowa Corn 350 win with a burnout across the line! (Ashton Tackwell | Motorsports Today)

NEWTON, I.A.- The NASCAR Cup Series headed back out to the mid-west, Sunday, August 29, for the Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol. In a race that saw many contenders for the win, it was strategy that prevailed late with Tyler Allen's bold two tire call, giving Ty Gibbs his second win of 2026.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

Penske dominated the day early with Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano being the face of the field early on in stage one. Ryan Blaney led the first 93 laps, including the first 70 of the opening stage while both managed a 1-2 finish in the opening stage. For Blaney though, it was strategy in stage two that mixed things up.

Chase Elliott made a bold decision to stay out after a caution on lap 94 when Shane Van Gisbern went for a spin. Elliott opted to stay out, while Blaney and other cars decided to pit, with majority of the field opting to take two tires.

The issue for Blaney though despite restarting 2nd, is he was unable to mount a move to truly get around Chase early. Chase led from lap 94 to lap 107, but when he lost the lead, it was not to Blaney, but rather the third person in the friendly trio equation of Bubba Wallace who had very impressive fire off speed.

Wallace cleared Elliott out of turn two on lap 108, and led the next 35 laps until the inevitable caution happened. On lap 141 Carson Hocevar cut down a tire, sending him into a spin, the reason for the yellow.

Under the caution Wallace led the field down pit road, but simply did not exit with the lead, in fact far from it. Not only did Wallace's 23XI team have a slow stop on the left rear during their four-tire service, but Wallace was also caught speeding, sending him to the tail end of the lead lap.

Wallace never cracked the top 10 again from that point on. Bubba finished the race12th, 1 lap down.

As for the next driver to step to the plate, it was Christopher Bell. Blaney led the initial lap of the restart, but could not handle the power of the #20, as Bell took the lead with ease. Bell proceeded to lead the next 71 laps in route to a stage two victory.

But the strategy piece was not over, in fact, far from over.

Under the caution Chase Elliott opted to stay out again, earning the lead for the third stage. This time it was very short lived as on the restart Ryan Blaney took the lead for the third time as the #9 fell backwards. Elliott finished the race 15th, never in the mix again afterwards. Blaney was on a two tire call after losing track position due to a slow stop in the second stage.

As for Blaney, he led the next 35 laps after passing Elliott but lost the lead on lap 253 to Christopher Bell, who prevailed again as the car to beat. But, when it was all said and done, despite the two being the class of the field all day long, neither of them won.

Instead, Ryan Blaney pit on lap 285 in attempt to undercut Bell's near three second lead. Bell stayed on the track until lap 290, but despite not much fall off throughout the day, the call from Adam Stevens was four tires, one the team soon would regret.

Bell did stay ahead of Blaney on the strategy, but the issue was his teammate Ty Gibbs decided to take two tires on the same lap putting him out in the lead.

What proceeded after was simply a game of trying to catch the cat by the tail. Multiple times in the closing laps Christopher Bell caught Ty Gibbs and got to his bumper but was unable to make a pass.

Bell got his final hance with two laps to go, but it simply was not enough. On the final lap Bell got to the bumper of Gibbs, but did not have a lane as he caught lapped traffic perfectly. For the 7th time in 2026, Christopher Bell came one spot short.

Ty Gibbs earned his second win of 2026, with the strategy paying off, also propelling him to second in the points standings.

OTHER NOTES:

Denny Hamlin had a demanding day filled with brake issues and had to adjust. After the race he was exhausted getting out of his car and needed medical attention but was thankfully okay! Hamlin despite practically having no brakes at all found a way to finish 5th.

While he did not expand his points lead to Ty Gibbs or Ryan Blaney, the gap leaving Iowa is 103 points. Tyler Reddick crashed out of the race on lap 4, causing himself to fall to fourth in the standings -120 points off the lead.

Josh Berry earned his first top five of the 2026 season after also making a two tire call similar to Ty Gibbs. Berry ran around the top ten majority of the day, but showed very promising long run pace leading to the season best result. Berry looks to capitalize off the newfound momentum and make it three-straight top tens as Berry finished 7th at Indy.

Lastly, Ross Chastain's playoff hopes are not quite over after a strong day inside the top ten. After 350 laps, Chastain finished 7th, also tallying 13 much needed stage points tallying a grand total of 43 points on the day. With a tough day for Austin Cindric, who finished 29th and Shane Van Gisberge, who finished 30th, Chastain leaves Iowa 18th in the points -47 to The Chase cutline.

UP NEXT:

The NASCAR Cup Series goes Saturday night prime time racing as the series takes on Richmond Raceway for its third to final race of the regular season. Earlier this week, it was announced that Richmond will be in The Chase for the 2027 season and will likely be the opening race. There will be plenty of hype around the weekend as a result.

Defending two-time winner Austin Dillon looks to make it a turkey in his #3 as he has been dominant at Richmond over the past two seasons. Perhaps Joey Logano can also continue showing strong pace and make a mark as he pushes towards potentially reaching the top 10 in points. Race coverage can be found on USA and MRN with the green flag slated for 7:00 P.M. ET. Motorsports Today will have at track coverage, so stick with us on X, Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube, and here on MotorsportsToday.net