Sometimes the best story of a NASCAR race isn't the winner's. Brad Keselowski should have and could have won the Iowa Corn 350.
NEWTON − With just under 90 laps remaining and his No. 6 Ford having plenty of fuel to reach the finish of the Aug. 3 Iowa Corn 350, Brad Keselowski told crew chief Jeremy Bullins over the team radio during a caution period, “Jeremy, don’t take this the wrong way: But I don’t want to see you again.”
Keselowski had been the dominant car of this sold-out race on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Iowa Speedway. He had swept the first two stages – his first two stage wins of the 23-race NASCAR Cup Series season to date – and was best-positioned on fuel and tires to secure a win he craved as both a driver and team owner. He hoped the race would run green the rest of the way, or at least with minimal incidents.
But as yellow flag after yellow flag drew out more cautions and allowed other top drivers to save fuel, Keselowski knew a potentially triumphant day was slipping away.
A race that started with no caution flags for incident through 168 laps wound up tying a Cup Series season-high with 12. Unbelievably bad luck for Keselowski, sure.
A jackpot for race winner William Byron, absolutely. Byron needed one of the 11 cautions in a span of 112 laps just to return to the lead lap.
Keselowski was charging late, going from 25th to a third-place finish in the final stage. But he fell 2 seconds short, as Byron had enough fuel remaining to cross the finish line first ... and do a celebratory burnout before his fuel pressure began to give out.
“He caught all the breaks, and he took the opportunity and maximized it,” Keselowski said of Byron. “He deserves credit for that. That's what this sport is about. You’ve got to be fast. You’ve got to execute. And you’ve got to have some luck. And they did all three things today.”
But what a story it would have been in Iowa for Keselowski to get the win.
He entered this race in 24th place in points, well outside the cutoff for the 10-race playoff that begins Aug. 31. A win, and he would have automatically qualified for the 16-driver field. Keselowski has long been perhaps the biggest advocate for Cup Series racing to come to Iowa, and it finally happened in 2024.
Ryan Blaney, whose mom is from Chariton, Iowa, became a popular winner in the inaugural Cup race here. Keselowski, who won a memorable Xfinity Series race here in 2009 by outdueling Kyle Busch, would have maybe become Mr. Iowa Speedway had he powered his Ford to victory lane in the series' second foray in Newton. (A return trip to the NASCAR-owned track is expected in 2026.)
But … Ty Dillon spun for the second time on lap 271. A side window from Todd Gilliland's Ford flew off, causing a debris caution on lap 281. Byron and others (like second-place Chase Briscoe) used those opportunities to save fuel out front.
“Every yellow was bad for us,” Keselowski said. “You get frustrated at the field for wrecking so much.”
And thus, with a 20-gallon tank of fuel projecting to go roughly 105 laps, Byron was able to save enough gas to run the final 144 laps around this 7/8-mile track without making a pit stop. Byron’s crew chief wasn’t sure the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet could coax enough fuel to bring home his second win of the season (the other being the Daytona 500).
“We didn’t know until about eight to go that we were really, really close to our (fuel-mileage) number,” crew chief Rudy Fugle said.
To be fair, Byron didn’t fluke into the win. He was strong from the drop of the green flag, leading the first 67 laps. But he ultimately gave way to Keselowski after a thrilling 42-lap battle, a sign that the No. 6 was the best car of the day. (Keselowski also ran the day's fastest lap, for what it's worth.)
Byron had his own bad luck in stage 2, getting trapped a lap down because of a Shane van Gisbergen spin on lap 169.
“Just happy to be in a position to win today,” Byron said. “I felt like we were a top-three, top-four car.”
In NASCAR, it’s often the case that the best car and best execution don’t win the race. That reality stings for Keselowski, who had a monster day at Iowa – moving up five places in the standings – but ended up being Iowa's hard-luck driver.
“When we had the lead, I felt like we were kind of the guy to beat,” Keselowski said. “Just the way the pit strategy fell at the end, it just didn’t come to us. Those guys that got trapped the lap down … ended up being a blessing for them, because it put them off strategy, and then the race came to them with all the yellows.
"It felt like we had done all the right things today. (The yellows) just kind of took away our shot to win.”
Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has served for 30 years with The Des Moines Register and USA TODAY Sports Network. Chad is the 2023 INA Iowa Sports Columnist of the Year and NSMA Co-Sportswriter of the Year in Iowa. Join Chad's text-message group (free for subscribers) at HawkCentral.com/HawkeyesTexts. Follow @ChadLeistikow on X.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Leistikow: Brad Keselowski seeing yellow after third-place Iowa finish
Category: General Sports
