William Byron snapped a winless streak dating back to the Daytona 500 after saving a stunning amount of fuel at Iowa Speedway.
The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet scored his second win of the season on Sunday after saving enough fuel to outlast drivers on different strategies. He led a top five that included Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, and Ryan Preece.
MORE: Iowa Speedway Cup Series results
The prevailing wisdom entering Sunday's race was that the fuel window was 110 laps. Some drivers thought they could potentially stretch this number to 118 laps if they saved enough under green.
Byron went 144 laps between his final pit stop and the end of the race. He also saved enough fuel to complete another lap around the track and then do a massive burnout by the start-finish line.
Byron also received some fuel-saving assistance from eight cautions that slowed the pace of the race.
"Man, how about that for some fuel mileage," Byron said after the race. "We've had our fair share of things not go our way with fuel mileage, and just super thankful for Rudy, all these guys, all the engineers, all the engineers back at the shop.
"Just this whole race team, we've been through a lot this year. It's been a lot of growing pains. It's been tough on us. But it feels really good today to get a win.
"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, and luckily the fuel was enough there at the end."
A little extra in the tank ⛽
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The North Carolina native has been on the bad side of fuel-saving issues in recent weeks. He controlled the race at Michigan International Speedway in June, but he ran out with four laps to go. He had to make a pit stop while Denny Hamlin took the lead and the win.
Byron also had a strong car last weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which he used to score 15 stage points. However, he ran out of fuel in the closing laps and ended the day in 16th place.
The concern in the closing laps at Iowa Speedway was that these issues would bite the No. 24 team once again, especially as the NBC Sports ticker showed the fuel gauge drop below 3%. However, Byron saved just enough even while nursing a lead of more than one second over Briscoe in second.
This win came at a time when crew chief Rudy Fugle said that the No. 24 team was "desperate." The group kicked off the year with a crown jewel win at Daytona International Speedway and then it showed consistency while battling for the regular-season championship.
However, crashes, mechanical issues, and fuel shortages knocked the team out of contention in multiple races. This led to Byron losing the points lead, but he took it back after the much-needed performance at Iowa Speedway.
"I think our confidence in each other never wavered," Byron said. "I feel like our speed has been better than it's ever been, and that's a big reason why we stay confident.
"I feel like every week we work really hard together and show up prepared, show up fast, and yeah, we needed just one to go our way, and today it did. Honestly, they haven't, but today it did."