Ty Gibbs Becomes a Serious NASCAR Championship Contender with Win at Iowa

Iowa Speedway, Newton, IA — August 9, 2026

After a one-week break, the fight for a postseason berth in NASCAR’s Chase for the Championship resumes today at Iowa Speedway. The track is a state-of-the-art 7/8-mile short-track by NASCAR standards, modeled after Richmond Raceway.

Iowa Speedway is an asphalt-paved oval with a slight dogleg on the front stretch. NASCAR purchased the facility in November 2013 for a reported $10 million from the US Motorsports Corp. Located in Newton, Iowa,  the track sits 30 miles east of Des Moines, Iowa.

This is the third time the Cup Series has raced on the circuit. The driver who led the most laps won both previous Iowa races: Ryan Blaney in 2024 and William Byron in 2025.

Four races remain before the Chase: Iowa, Richmond, New Hampshire, and Daytona. Iowa is a 7/8-mile short track; Richmond is a 3/4-mile short track; New Hampshire is a 1-mile flat oval; Daytona is a 2.5-mile high-banked drafting track. Three of the next four races use the 750-HP package, while Daytona has a new performance package since the one used during the season-opening 500.

The Bristol Night Race on September 19th and Martinsville on November 1st are the two short-track races included in The Chase.

Today’s Race

Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott will start at the rear of the field today after both crashed in practice. The Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol is scheduled for 306.25 miles, 350 laps. Stages are 70/140/140 laps. Ryan Blaney starts in the pole, and Kyle Larson lines up beside him on the front row.

Stage One

Ryan Blaney(12) drove away from the front of the field at the drop of the green flag as drivers shuffled for positions all the way through the 36-car field. Like most short track races, beating and banging began on lap one.

On lap four, Tyler Reddick(45) got loose and spun to the right into the outside wall of turn one. He collected the car of Erik Jones(43). Reddick had to be towed to the garage with terminal damage to the front of his machine. Jones suffered extensive damage to the right side of his car after it struck the wall and will require suspension repairs to continue. The wreck likely ended Jones’ chance at a spot in the Postseason Chase, as he entered Iowa two positions outside the top 16.

On the restart, Blaney again pulled out from the pack. When the fight for positions settled down, Kyle Larson(5), Joey Logano(22), Ty Gibbs(54), and Austin Dillon(3) made up the top five.

Blaney led all 70 laps of Stage One with the only change in the top five going to Logano, who worked his way around Larson for second.

Results of Stage One

Stage Two

Blaney won the race off pit road, followed by Logano and Larson. Ross Chastain(1) replaced Ty Gibbs in the lead group. Gibbs crew failed to get the right rear wheel tight before lowering the jack during his pit stop. The mishap cost Gibbs considerable track position; he dropped to 28th on the restart.

Blaney outran his Team Penske teammate Logano to preserve the lead into turn one. In the scramble for positions, Bubba Wallace(23) moved up to join the top five.

On lap 91, Shane van Gisbergen(97)(SVG) spun, unassisted, at the rear of the pack. The single-car incident brought out the caution. Almost the entire field came to pit road and exited in the same order they arrived. However, Chase Elliott(9) stayed on the track and inherited the lead. NASCAR’s most popular driver used the timely yellow flag to gain track position after starting at the rear of the field.

Elliott and Blaney raced side-by-side for a lap, but the caution waved again. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.(47) got a tap from Michael McDowell(71) as they were racing four-wide back in the pack. Stenhouse spun high and avoided heavy contact with the outside wall as the pack roared past him on the bottom of the track.

Restarting again on the favored high side of the track, Elliott held off the charge from Blaney, who bobbled slightly trying to stay even with the #9 car. The slight mistake allowed Bubba Wallace to move around Blaney and use the momentum to make a pass for the lead. In the process, Blaney moved past Elliott as well.

The two cars at the front of the pack moved away from the field. Elliott, Logano, and Dillon followed.

Lap 141 saw the caution displayed again for a spin by Carson Hocevar(77). After complaining of a lack of horsepower all race long, Hocevar’s crew concluded it was an internal engine problem with no repair possible during the event. Carson may have been pushing too hard to pick up time when his car stepped out from underneath him.

The caution was an ideal opportunity for Chase Elliott to get back on cycle with the leaders. Unfortunately, Chase’s crew had a disastrous pit stop with the car falling off the jack before the stop was complete. Relegating Elliott to 28th position on the field.

Bubba Wallace led the field to pit road and was caught speeding while entering. Wallace forfeited a great run as he was penalized and joined Elliott at the rear of the pack.

New faces at the front had the Joe Gibbs Racing(JGR) teammates of Denny Hamlin(11), Christopher Bell(20), and Chase Briscoe(19) leading the train to the green flag restart.

Just as they completed a lap, another four-wide incident sent Alex Bowman(48) into the outside wall courtesy of his teammate Larson, who had lost multiple positions in a tussle with John Hunter Nemechek(42) and bunched up the middle of the pack.

On the restart, Bell jumped into the lead and opened a two-second interval on the other JGR drivers. Blaney was caught back behind the lead group and, without clean air on the nose of his car, was extremely loose, dropping out of the top ten.

Bell led the remainder of the laps in Stage Two. Logano, Chastain, and Ty Gibbs moved ahead of Briscoe and Hamlin to pick up important Stage points. That’s all four JGR cars in the top six at the green and white checkered flag.

Results of Stage Two

The Final Stage

Trouble on pit road for the leaders continued. Joey Logano’s crew failed to get the left rear wheel tight on his car. Logano was on his way out of his pit stall when the crew stopped him. He backed up, and they jacked the car up again to make sure the wheel was tight. He will restart outside the top 20.

Chase Elliott repeated his gamble from the end of Stage One. Elliott stayed on the track and inherited the lead when the rest of the field pitted.

Ryan Blaney also gambled to gain track position back. He changed only two tires and will restart next to Elliott on the front row.

The two new tires were enough to allow Blaney to drive away from the lead pack. On old tires, Elliott began losing positions to Bell, Chastain, Gibbs, and Hamlin, who moved up to drop Elliott from the top five.

Elliott pitted on lap 255 and went a lap down, losing the gamble this time around.

Christopher Bell ran down Blaney and took over the lead. The two cars hold a two-second lead over Gibbs in third. If Blaney can stay near the front until the next pit cycle and get four fresh tires, he may be able to compete with Bell over the final laps of the race.

Ty Gibbs passed Blaney with 72 laps to go, with both cars suffering ill-handling issues.

Blaney was the first of the leaders to pit with 65 laps to go. This forced the rest of the leaders to begin to consider coming in as four fresh tires will be an advantage for the #12 car. Bell came to the pit road five laps later. Gibbs pitted on the same lap but only took two tires. Ross Chastain inherited the lead.

On the track, both Gibbs and Bell passed Blaney. The three fastest cars all unlapped themselves passing Chastain, so if a caution comes out, they will cycle back to the front. Blaney trailed the two leaders by five seconds.

Chastain pitted with 20 laps to go. Gibbs leads Bell by three car lengths, and it looks like the two teammates will decide things as Blaney is six seconds back in third.

With ten laps to go, the interval shrinks to a car length as Gibbs catches lapped traffic.

Gibbs takes the white flag with Bell on his rear bumper. They catch Brad Keselowski on the final lap, and Gibbs goes to the high side using the #6 car as a block. The move allows Gibbs to take the checkered flag for his second career victory and the second of the 2026 season.

With the win, Ty Gibbs moves into second behind Denny Hamlin in the points standings. Ryan Blaney sits third, and Tyler Reddick falls to fourth. All four drivers have clinched a spot in the postseason.

NASCAR Cup Series Points Standings

Results of the Iowa Corn 350 from Iowa Speedway