Chase Briscoe got by Christopher Bell with seven laps to go and went on to win Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway.
After going back to green on Lap 229 following the eighth and final caution, Briscoe was able to use fresher tires to eventually run down the dominate car of Bell for his first win of the season.
“Once we got that caution I was going to restart fourth and I knew I was going to be in good shape,” said Briscoe, who took tires on Lap 204. “Christopher was way better than I thought he was going to be on those tires. It was fun.”
The win was Briscoe’s second victory in 36 Xfinity Series races. He won last year at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL.
During the race, Briscoe was penalized on pit road on Lap 158 when he ran over the air hose resulting in going to the tail end of the field.
Bell dominated the day up until Briscoe passed him, leading 234 of the 250 laps. Bell, who is now the all-time lap leader at Iowa, was looking to score his third straight win at the .875-mile track.
“To be able to hold him off as long as I did and not win the race stings,” said Bell, who last took tires on Lap 154. “This Rheem Supra was super, super fast.”
John Hunter Nemechek, Noah Gragson and Tyler Reddick rounded out the top five.
Cole Custer suffered his second DNF in the last four races this season when he hit the Turn 3 wall on Lap 160. The exit from the race came a few laps after receiving a penalty for speeding on pit road.
“I just got really loose and hit the fence,” Custer said. “I’m just frustrated. Our Haas Automation Mustang was really good.”
During the last caution Dillon Bassett did not see the sweeper truck, which was putting out a cloud of dust from the cleanup from when the No. 86 of Brandon Brown lost an engine, and ran into to the back of the sweeper coming to pit road.
Reddick now leads the point standings by 46 points over Bell.
