NEWTON, Iowa – Ty Gibbs held his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell at bay in the Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol at Iowa Speedway to win his second race of the 2026 season.

The third and final stage went caution free, so teams had to execute their strategy with everything on the line. On the final pit stop of the day, crew chief Tyler Allen called for two tires for the Ty Gibbs and the No. 54 SiriusXM Toyota team. Bell chased Gibbs down and with 10 laps to go, he found significant speed; however, lapped traffic hindered his progress and Gibbs was able to prevail.

“That was a two-tire call, and it worked,” Gibbs said. “The difference between two tires and four tires that you’re asking, just a little bit more overall grip, a little tighter of a balance.”

Gibbs earned his first-career NASCAR Cup Series victory earlier this year at Bristol Motor Speedway. In recent week, Gibbs has been running up front, earning four top-five finished in the last six races. With Sunday’s win, Gibbs now catapults two spots in the standings as he sits second, 103 points behind Denny Hamlin.

“Yeah, I just had to keep my head down, gel up and stay with it,” Gibbs said. “I appreciate my team, Tony Hirschman (spotter), all glory to Jesus Christ.”

Bell held on to finish second following a second-place finish in the Brickyard 400 two weeks ago. In fact, the driver of the No. 20 DeWalt Toyota now has seven runner-up finishes this season. On Sunday, Bell started deep in the field in 22^nd, but he won Stage 2 and led twice for 108 laps. Despite the strong showing, Bell was disappointed with the outcome.

“This is what you call a bad second-place finish for sure,” Bell said. “I don’t know what else to say. Ty did a really good job. He did a great job managing the race. I could tell that he was slipping and sliding around. Similar to last week or two weeks ago with Corey Heim, he just didn’t make a mistake. So P2.”

Polesitter Ryan Blaney finished third, followed by Josh Berry and Denny Hamlin. Rounding out the top-10 was Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain, AJ Allmendinger, William Byron and Austin Hill.

There were nine lead changes among six drivers. Blaney led a race high of 129 laps.

There were also seven cautions for 45 laps.

The action started early on Lap 5, when Tyler Reddick lost control, spun and took out Erik Jones in Turn 1. With a 35^th place finish, Jones fell to 20^th in the standings, and a last place finish dropped Reddick to fourth.

“Yeah, there wasn’t much.” Reddick said. “It was quick or I probably could have saved it. Just got out of shape in an area – corner entry – where I thought we were pretty secure all weekend. I feel awful for our SupplyHouse Toyota team. For us to take ourselves out is one thing, but to take out a fellow Toyota teammate when they are racing for the Chase – pretty much ended their day as well. It is the type of stuff you don’t do to yourself, and you don’t do to a teammate.” 

Another notable accident occurred on Lap 150, when Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman crashed exited Turn 4 while racing in a four-wide scenario. Larson finished 33^rd, and Bowman finished 34^th.

Austin Cindric currently controls the 16^th and final position for The Chase with just three races to go in the Regular Season. Ryan Preece trails by 29 points, Ross Chastain by 47 points, Brad Keselowski by 48 points and Erik Jones by 50 points.

The NASCAR Cup Series will visit Richmond Raceway on Sunday, Aug. 15, for the Cook Out 400. Live coverage will broadcast on USA at 7 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Sean Gardner/Getty Images