The 2025 Iowa Corn 350 was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on August 3, 2025, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. Contested over 350 laps on the D-shaped oval, it was the 23rd race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.
William Byron won the race. Chase Briscoe finished 2nd, and Brad Keselowski finished 3rd. Ryan Blaney and Ryan Preece rounded out the top five, and Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Carson Hocevar, Joey Logano, and Austin Dillon rounded out the top ten.
Report
Background
Iowa Speedway is a 7/8-mile (1.4 km) paved oval motor racing track in Newton, Iowa, United States, approximately east of Des Moines. The track was designed with influence from Rusty Wallace and patterned after Richmond Raceway, a short track where Wallace was very successful. It has over 25,000 permanent seats as well as a unique multi-tiered Recreational Vehicle viewing area along the backstretch. The track hosts the NTT IndyCar Series and NASCAR events.
After the 2020 race was canceled due to the pandemic, the race was removed from the 2021 schedule. In 2024, it was announced that the Xfinity Series would return to Iowa with a Cup Series race.
Entry list (R) denotes rookie driver. (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.
Driver Team Manufacturer 1 Ross Chastain Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet 2 Austin Cindric Team Penske Ford 3 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 4 Noah Gragson Front Row Motorsports Ford 5 Kyle Larson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 6 Brad Keselowski RFK Racing Ford 7 Justin Haley Spire Motorsports Chevrolet 8 Kyle Busch Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 9 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 10 Ty Dillon Kaulig Racing Chevrolet 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 12 Ryan Blaney Team Penske Ford 16 A. J. Allmendinger Kaulig Racing Chevrolet 17 Chris Buescher RFK Racing Ford 19 Chase Briscoe Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 20 Christopher Bell Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 21 Josh Berry Wood Brothers Racing Ford 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 23 Bubba Wallace 23XI Racing Toyota 24 William Byron Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 34 Todd Gilliland Front Row Motorsports Ford 35 Riley Herbst (R) 23XI Racing Toyota 38 Zane Smith Front Row Motorsports Ford 41 Cole Custer Haas Factory Team Ford 42 John Hunter Nemechek Legacy Motor Club Toyota 43 Erik Jones Legacy Motor Club Toyota 45 Tyler Reddick 23XI Racing Toyota 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet 48 Alex Bowman Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 51 Cody Ware Rick Ware Racing Ford 54 Ty Gibbs Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 60 Ryan Preece RFK Racing Ford 66 Joey Gase (i) Garage 66 Ford 71 Michael McDowell Spire Motorsports Chevrolet 77 Carson Hocevar Spire Motorsports Chevrolet 88 Shane van Gisbergen (R) Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet 99 Daniel Suárez Trackhouse Racing ChevroletOfficial entry list
Practice Christopher Bell was the fastest in the practice session with a time of 23.511 seconds and a speed of .
Practice results Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Time 1 20 Christopher Bell Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 23.511 133.979 2 23 Bubba Wallace 23XI Racing Toyota 23.526 133.894 3 19 Chase Briscoe Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 23.546 133.780Official practice results
Qualifying Chase Briscoe scored the pole for the race with a time 23.004 of and a speed of .
Qualifying results Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Time 1 19 Chase Briscoe Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 23.004 136.933 2 24 William Byron Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 23.088 136.435 3 5 Kyle Larson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 23.089 136.429 4 2 Austin Cindric Team Penske Ford 23.101 136.358 5 6 Brad Keselowski RFK Racing Ford 23.119 136.252 6 12 Ryan Blaney Team Penske Ford 23.151 136.063 7 77 Carson Hocevar Spire Motorsports Chevrolet 23.159 136.016 8 9 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 23.165 135.981 9 16 A. J. Allmendinger Kaulig Racing Chevrolet 23.174 135.928 10 7 Justin Haley Spire Motorsports Chevrolet 23.198 135.788 11 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 23.219 135.665 12 21 Josh Berry Wood Brothers Racing Ford 23.230 135.601 13 71 Michael McDowell Spire Motorsports Chevrolet 23.238 135.554 14 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 23.245 135.513 15 23 Bubba Wallace 23XI Racing Toyota 23.247 135.501 16 48 Alex Bowman Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 23.255 135.455 17 20 Christopher Bell Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 23.268 135.379 18 3 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 23.271 135.362 19 41 Cole Custer Haas Factory Team Ford 23.286 135.274 20 54 Ty Gibbs Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 23.306 135.158 21 88 Shane van Gisbergen (R) Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet 23.308 135.147 22 45 Tyler Reddick 23XI Racing Toyota 23.322 135.066 23 38 Zane Smith Front Row Motorsports Ford 23.338 134.973 24 35 Riley Herbst (R) 23XI Racing Toyota 23.363 134.829 25 43 Erik Jones Legacy Motor Club Toyota 23.365 134.817 26 99 Daniel Suárez Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet 23.396 134.638 27 17 Chris Buescher RFK Racing Ford 23.398 134.627 28 1 Ross Chastain Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet 23.402 134.604 29 42 John Hunter Nemechek Legacy Motor Club Toyota 23.439 134.391 30 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet 23.459 134.277 31 4 Noah Gragson Front Row Motorsports Ford 23.509 133.991 32 10 Ty Dillon Kaulig Racing Chevrolet 23.526 133.894 33 60 Ryan Preece RFK Racing Ford 23.538 133.826 34 34 Todd Gilliland Front Row Motorsports Ford 23.631 133.299 35 51 Cody Ware Rick Ware Racing Ford 23.633 133.288 36 66 Joey Gase (i) Garage 66 Ford 25.173 125.134 37 8 Kyle Busch Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 0.000 0.000 Official qualifying results
Race Stage 1 At the drop of the green flag, Chase Briscoe took the lead. However, by the end of the first lap, William Byron was out front. Austin Cindric and Brad Keselowski also passed Briscoe early in the running. Kyle Larson held down the fifth position. Byron moved away from the pack as Cindric and Keselowski staged their own battle for the second spot.
Keselowski hounded Byron, making several challenges for the lead. The #24 car held off every attempt to drop him out of the top spot until lap 67. Three laps before the end of the stage, Byron bobbled slightly, and Keselowski quickly moved around. Before Byron could recover, Cindric also made the pass. The mistake cost Byron a playoff point for the stage win and 2 position points for the Stage.
Stage 2 On the restart, Briscoe and Byron again lead the field to the green. Ultimately, Ryan Blaney and Keselowski moved to the front of the pack. Late in the stage cautions dominated the action. Shane van Gisbergen spun. Blaney and Keselowski traded the lead as the yellow flags came in short sequences.
Cody Ware went around on the front stretch. Ty Dillon got bumped high by Todd Gilliland and backed into the outside wall. Finally, Carson Hocevar got pushed around by John Hunter Nemechek on the last lap of Stage Two. He stayed off the wall and the Stage ended with Keselowski again taking the green and white checkered flag.
Final stage Again, it was Blaney and Keselowski on the front row for the restart in the Final Stage. Brad appears to be the class of the field, as he seems to be able to work his way to the front is he is near the front. Just 12 laps into the final stage, Denny Hamlin went around racing four-wide for the 20th position. Somehow, he avoided contact with any other car in the back of the pack.
Restarts were picking up in intensity and as we always said, "cautions breed cautions". Hocevar and Zane Smith get together after two laps of green flag racing and Smith spins. With 119 laps to go, some teams gambled on being able to stretch fuel to the end of the race, including leader Brad Keselowski, along with Kyle Busch.
Teammates Blaney and Cindric restarted on the front row with 114 laps to go. Ryan Preece, Josh Berry, and Chase Elliott rounded out the top five.
With 107 to go, Erik Jones and Briscoe went together racing three-wide with Bubba Wallace. Jones spun around and brought out the eighth caution. Most of the field pitted so they get on the same cycle with teams that pitted earlier. It looks like gas will not be an issue if the race ends within its scheduled 350 laps.
Austin Cindric led Berry and Elliott once green flag racing resumes as cars were scrambling for positions three and four wide back in the pack. The ninth caution of the race occurred on lap 253 when Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell got together and spin high on the track. Everyone avoids the incident and neither car makes contact with the wall.
More cars pitted to make sure they were good to the finish on either tires or fuel.
Chase Elliott jumped away from the pack on the restart with 83 laps to go, William Byron filled in the second spot. Three laps later, Ty Dillon was bumped by Kyle Larson and loses it out of turn four for the 11th caution of the day. All of those slow downs are benefitting the teams trying to stretch fuel economy and cooling tires.
Byron won the restart race to turn one, And the 12th caution of the race happened as the right close out window on the #34 car of Todd Gilliland blew out and landed on the track. Chase Elliott pitted during the caution and will start back in the pack with 60 laps to go.
With 50 laps to go, Byron’s out front. Briscoe runs in second. Preece, Bowman, Keselowski, Hocevar, Nemechek, and Justin Haley hold down the next six positions. None of those six drivers have a win yet this season.
With 30 laps to go, Byron led by Briscoe by two car lengths and Keselowski was up to third and closing. All three were catching lapped traffic.
Byron ekes out enough fuel economy to take the win. Briscoe, Keselowski, and Blaney followed nose to tail a second behind the winner.
William Byron regained the regular season points lead, up 18 point on former leader Chase Elliott. Just 51 points separate the top four. Ryan Preece cut the points difference between himself and teammate Chris Buescher (on the bubble) for 42 to 23 points. Another winner outside of the top 17 was likely force both Buescher and Preece into the must win category to qualify for the postseason. Race results
Stage results
Stage One Laps: 70
Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Points1 6 Brad Keselowski RFK Racing Ford 102 2 Austin Cindric Team Penske Ford 93 24 William Byron Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 84 12 Ryan Blaney Team Penske Ford 75 19 Chase Briscoe Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 66 5 Kyle Larson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 57 77 Carson Hocevar Spire Motorsports Chevrolet 48 9 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 39 16 A. J. Allmendinger Kaulig Racing Chevrolet 210 7 Justin Haley Spire Motorsports Chevrolet 1Official stage one results
Stage Two Laps: 140
Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Points1 6 Brad Keselowski RFK Racing Ford 102 12 Ryan Blaney Team Penske Ford 93 2 Austin Cindric Team Penske Ford 84 54 Ty Gibbs Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 75 8 Kyle Busch Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 66 21 Josh Berry Wood Brothers Racing Ford 57 48 Alex Bowman Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 48 43 Erik Jones Legacy Motor Club Toyota 39 60 Ryan Preece RFK Racing Ford 210 3 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 1Official stage two results
Final Stage results
Stage Three Laps: 140