Ty Gibbs won Sunday’s (Aug. 9) NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway, holding off his JGR teammate Christopher Bell to earn his second victory of 2026.
Gibbs overtook Bell on pit road during the final round of pit stops after taking two tires to Bell’s four, and despite his best efforts, Bell could not get back around Gibbs in the closing laps.
“Yeah, I just had to keep my head down, gel up and stay with it,” Gibbs told USA Network. “I appreciate my team, Tony Hirschman, all glory to Jesus Christ.”
Ryan Blaney, Josh Berry, Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain, AJ Allmendinger, William Byron and Austin Dillon rounded out the top-10 finishers.
“I don’t know what else to say,” Bell told USA Sports after coming up just short.
Bell now has seven second-place finishes this season, and Sunday’s result may hurt especially bad given that Bell led late in the race and had one of the best cars in the field.
Blaney looked to have the best car for most of the weekend, but that was not the case in stage three.
“The 20 and the 54 were definitely better than me second half of the race,” Blaney said. “But Jonathan (Hassler) did a good job of putting two on it after the Stage 2 caution, kind of got some track position back and then kind of sat in third and kind of ran there. Overall really good weekend, good practice and qualifying and strong showing in the race.:
Bell passed Blaney for the lead with 97 laps to go after a spirited battle that saw him fake out Blaney to take the top spot.
Blaney came down pit road first during the final round of green flag pit stops, though he still came out behind Bell and Gibbs, the latter of whom took two tires and jumped Bell on pit road.
Tyler Reddick and Erik Jones were collected in a lap 4 crash in turn 1 after Reddick got loose and spun underneath Jones.
Blaney went on to win stage one. On the ensuing pit stops, both Gibbs and Todd Gilliland fell outside of the top 20 after very slow pit stops.
Shane van Gisbergen brought out the yellow on lap 91 after spinning in turn 3. The yellow then came out again on the ensuing restart after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun in turn 3.
Bubba Wallace, who came down pit road leading, was hit with a speeding penalty on the ensuing round of yellow flag pit stops.
The Joe Gibbs Racing trio of Bell, Hamlin and Briscoe stayed out, assuming the top three positions. The yellow flag waved again on lap 149 after Kyle Larson got into Alex Bowman, turning Bowman into the outside wall on the frontstretch.
Bell hung onto the lead over the final run to to end the stage, snagging the stage two victory.
Iowa Corn 350 Results
The NASCAR Cup Series will return to action on Saturday, Aug. 15 with the running of the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway. Green flag is set for 7 p.m. ET, and the broadcast can be found on USA.
A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.