Stretching his final tank of fuel for the final 144 laps, William Byron held on to win at Iowa Speedway over pole-sitter Chase Briscoe and Brad Keselowski.

“Man, we deserved that one,” Byron told his team on the radio. “Appreciate it. Thanks to everybody.”

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It was the second win of the season for Byron, who lost a race at Michigan International Speedway two months ago when his No. 24 Chevrolet ran out of fuel.

“How about that for some fuel mileage?” Byron joked with NASCAR on NBC pit reporter Marty Snider. “We’ve had our fair share of things not go our way with fuel mileage. Super thankful for (crew chief) Rudy (Fugle) and all these guys, al the engineers back at the shop. We’ve been through a lot this year. There’s been a lot of growing pains. It’s been tough on us, but it feels really good today to get a win.”
Ryan Blaney and Ryan Preece rounded out the top five.

Byron made his final pit stop on Lap 206 of 350 on the 0.875-mile oval, where the pit window is estimated at about 110 green-flag laps. The Hendrick Motorsports driver led a race-high 141 laps in his first victory since winnig the Daytona 500 season opener.

“Honestly, felt like we had a good car and just kind of raced it and just tried to be there at the end, and we were,” Byron said. “Luckily, the fuel was enough at the end. I think I ran out right there, that’s why I stopped.”

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After a clean Stage 1 without a caution flag, the race got extremely choppy after only one yellow in the first 170 laps.

The second half of the race featured 11 cautions, which had a cascading effect on myriad strategies and left some strong cars in precarious tactical spots.

Keselowski won the first two stages and led three times for 68 laps, but his No. 6 Ford got trapped in a difficult strategy by a rash of yellows that bookended the end of Stage 2. The Roush Fenway Keselowski driver-owner pitted from the lead on Lap 231 and was unable to get back to the front after fallling outside the top 20.

Stage 1 winner: Keselowski

Stage 2 winner: Keselowski

Next: Sunday, Aug. 10, 2 p.m. ET at Watkins Glen International on USA