Who… should you be talking about after the checkered flag?
Entering Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway (Aug. 9), just 145 drivers could boast of more than one win in the NASCAR Cup Series. That might sound like a crowd, but only about six percent of drivers with Cup Series starts have wins, and multiple wins are rarer.
Sunday saw Ty Gibbs make it 146. Gibbs battled with polesitter Ryan Blaney and teammate Christopher Bell for much of the day, and at one point fell as low as 28th in the field before a long green-flag run and a round of pit stops under green played into the No. 54 team’s hands.Â
The entire final stage of the race was run under the green flag. On the final round of stops, Gibbs and Bell came to pit road with Bell having had an advantage on speed all day. So Gibbs’ team tried another tactic: they gambled on just two tires on the last stop, giving Gibbs enough of an advantage to beat Bell off of pit road, and with passing on track at a premium, it proved to be the winning move.
Gibbs didn’t actually take the race lead until the last 20 laps because a few others stayed on track hoping for a caution. When that didn’t come, Gibbs finally cycled to the lead with 20 to go, and from there, it was a matter of keeping Bell behind him.
Bell’s car was faster, and he dogged Gibbs for their entire final run, catching him a couple of times as the laps ticked down, but Gibbs had clean air and that was enough to keep Bell from being able to make a move. Gibbs beat Bell to the line by .253 seconds. It’s Gibbs’ second win of 2026 and the second of his career.
On the other hand…
After one of the hottest starts in Cup history, Tyler Reddick’s season has taken a turn for the worse. Reddick held a 129-point lead over second-place Denny Hamlin in mid-May, but Hamlin took over the lead in late June, and Reddick has fallen further behind ever since. He leaves Iowa in fourth with a 120-point deficit after a lap four crash. Reddick lost the No. 45 on his own and spun into Erik Jones.Â
Jones, who had been eyeing a Chase berth, likely saw those hopes go up in smoke as he finished 35th, one position ahead of Reddick.
What… is the big question everyone should be asking after the race?
He hasn’t won a race in 2026. On Sunday, he fell just short again … but is Christopher Bell a Chase favorite anyway?
He has to be. Bell has finished second in four of the last five races and seven times this year. His average finish in the last six weeks is 5.4 despite a 19th-place finish three weeks ago at North Wilkesboro Speedway. He has gained four spots in points in that span.
Bell’s No. 20 team is executing every week. They’re riding a hot streak into the final weeks of the regular season. Could he have won with a two-tire call like Gibbs’ team made? Maybe — but tires have been so valuable this year that two felt more like a gamble that paid off for Gibbs than anything.
If Bell can keep the momentum going and open The Chase with a string of consistent top fives, he can absolutely win the title. In terms of both his consistency and finishes in the last month, he is at the top of his game. If Sunday’s race exposed a fault, Bell might have been more aggressive in the closing laps, up to and including using his bumper. He’ll need to do that in The Chase if it means the difference in winning or not. But he can certainly win.
If he’s not in the title conversation, whoever’s talking isn’t paying attention.
Where… did he come from?
This week, a pair of drivers quietly put together one of their best races in 2026. Josh Berry, who was announced to not be returning to the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford at the end of the year, had his best finish of the season. Berry started a solid 13th and backed it up with his first top five of 2026. He didn’t score any stage points, concentrating on the long game, and at this point in the season, that was the right move. He’s not going to make The Chase, so the end result was more important to the No. 21 team than the stage points, and their strategy worked for a great day.
Another driver who didn’t take home any stage points but did take a great finish was AJ Allmendinger, who finished eighth for his best 2026 result on an oval. It’s Allmendinger’s fourth top 10, but the others came on road courses, where he excels. Allmendinger works very hard on his oval game, and it worked out for the No. 16 team on Sunday.
Finally, he just missed a top 10, but when you haven’t finished better than 28th in a month, 11th place feels pretty good. Connor Zilisch finished in the top 10 in the first two stages and just missed it. More importantly, he avoided trouble and ran a solid race. He’s been capable all along, and Sunday, Lady Luck finally cooperated.
When… are we going to talk about the points?
And just like that, there are just three races — on two flat tracks and a superspeedway — for drivers to work their way into The Chase. Drivers who were strong at Iowa will likely be strong at Richmond Raceway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway as well.
Hamlin widened his lead over second at Iowa and now holds a 103-point advantage over his teammate Gibbs. Polesitter Blaney remained in third, 110 points back, but he gained 10 points on Hamlin. Reddick fell to fourth, 10 points behind Blaney. He does have a little breathing room, holding a 140-point gap to fifth-place Chase Briscoe, but he needs to stop the bleeding and find some positive momentum heading into The Chase if he’s going to contend.
Bell had the biggest gain of the week, picking up four spots to slot into sixth. Chase Elliott fell to seventh, while Carson Hocevar dropped three spots to eighth after an undiagnosed engine issue. Chris Buescher remained ninth while Kyle Larson’s run of bad luck continued, dropping him to 10th.
Closer to The Chase bubble, Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Cindric struggled on Sunday but remained in 15th and 16th, respectively. Van Gisbergen has a 47-point gap over 17th-place Ryan Preece. Preece gained on a Chase spot, picking up nine points to sit 29 points behind Cindric. A combination of Jones’ early exit and a seventh-place finish saw Ross Chastain move up three spots to 18th, 47 markers behind Cindric, while Brad Keselowski also passed Jones to take over 19th, just one point behind Chastain. Jones fell to 20th.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
The Cup Series leaves Iowa behind for another track with a similar layout, Richmond Raceway. Austin Dillon enters the weekend as a surprising favorite, but he’s earned it with back-to-back wins at Richmond. Dillon had a solid run at Iowa to lead into Richmond, so don’t be surprised to see him have a good race under the lights on Saturday night once again.
Who else should you be watching?
Hamlin, Larson and Buescher also have recent Next Gen wins at Richmond. Hamlin boasts the best average finish in the last six races at 6.6, just ahead of Logano’s 7.0. Larson and Berry also have solid averages at 8.3 and 8.8 in the last six races. Bell also has a top-10 average, making this group worth keeping an eye on.
Hamlin is the active wins leader with five, though only two of those have come in the Next Gen car.
How… did this race stack up?
Give some props to the USA Sports broadcast team, because they called a great race. It’s just too bad they didn’t have a great race to call. They called Bell’s attempt to hunt down Gibbs in the closing laps in excellent detail, but it was apparent that Bell wasn’t going to be able to pass Gibbs.
Cars that were better than the cars they were racing could pass in the field, but up front, clean air meant that the second-place car had to be much, much better than the leader unless it was just after a restart.
Bell had the best car, and even after he used up too much tire trying to challenge Gibbs, his car was good enough to make another run at it in the closing laps. It was probably good enough to overcome Gibbs, but it couldn’t overcome the aerodynamic disadvantage of running second. Bell had one shot to move Gibbs, but again, the air made it nearly impossible to get to the bumper to try a bump-and-run.
The race had some drama, thanks to the changing points picture, and there were some comers and goers, as well as a dose of bad luck for a few drivers, but the race itself was disappointing.
It’s also getting more difficult every week to ignore the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series putting on better shows at the same tracks as the Cup cars. The NOAPS cars are significantly better on the flat tracks and road courses, and just as good on the intermediates — and they’re putting on better shows despite one organization consistently winning races.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.
Geez. Aero this aero that. These cars are boring. Cup drivers in O’Reilly cars with 750 HP. Problem solved.
The artwork on the start/finish line was kinda neat.
I don’t dislike Leigh Diffey, but he’s out of place calling stock car racing. I had the same opinion of Jackie Stewart back in the day.
How I long for the days of Bob Jenkins, Ned & Glenn Jarret, Benny Parsons, Buddy Baker, et al