After a week off, Ty Gibbs and the Toyotas returned back in form.
Gibbs held off teammate Christopher Bell in an intense final 40 laps to win the Iowa Corn 350 NASCAR Cup Series race on Aug. 9 at Iowa Speedway.
Several Toyota teams made brake rotor changes before the green flag after troubles in practice the previous day, including Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Riley Herbst. Hamlin worked around his brake troubles throughout the race, driving to a fifth-place finish, while Briscoe finished sixth.
Gibbs and Bell didn't have those concerns, and Toyota produced its usual dominance with four of the top six finishers overall.
Here are the winners and losers from the NASCAR Iowa race:
Iowa race, Chase picture
NASCAR Iowa winners and losers
Winner: Ty Gibbs' place in the JGR power rankings, Cup points standings
Gibbs overcame a long pit stop after Stage 1 to win at Iowa, his second of his NASCAR Cup Series career.
The driver of the No. 54 is suddenly second in points and a legitimate title threat this fall. He's stringing together consistency with the couple wins.
Gibbs' last finish outside of the top 15 when he actually saw the checkered flag (besides his four DNFs via crashes) was at the Daytona 500.
No one can best Denny Hamlin in terms of consistency this year, but Gibbs sure looks like Toyota's second-best chance at a title run.
Winner: Josh Berry and his best finish of 2026
Hendersonville's Josh Berry has suffered through a miserable 2026 season, but something has changed over the last two races.
Berry finished seventh at the Brickyard 400, then raced to a fourth-place run at Iowa after running inside the top 10 for a lot of the race.
Berry has no announced ride for the 2027 season, and the Cup Series feature few clear-cut options for the 35-year old.
But more runs like the last two can only help his outlook for next year.
Loser: Tyler Reddick
Tyler Reddick is now fourth in points following a Lap 4 crash and a last-place finish at Iowa.
Anyone who watched the first two months of the season should be stunned to see Reddick's rapid slide down the standings.
Reddick lost control on his own into Turn 1, then slid up into the wall and collected Erik Jones to end both drivers' days before they really started at Iowa.
The driver of the No. 45 won't slide further during the regular season, as he has a 140-point barrier between himself and fifth-place Chase Briscoe with three races before the Chase.
But who could reasonably expect that Reddick and team will return to their spring form in September?
Loser: Christopher Bell's trophy case in 2026
It's important to note that Christopher Bell should be considered among the top five or six Cup Series title contenders going into the Chase. He's been very, very good and well ahead of peers like Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott this summer.
And being a Toyota, the No. 20 should expect to contend every weekend with a couple wins sprinkled in.
But the winning has inexplicably not happened for Bell in 2026.
Bell's second-place finish was the seventh runner-up this year, and all have been by slight margins.
Bell finished second in the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in a race that finished under a red flag. The margin of victory (well, for Bell, margin of defeat) in the other six races: 0.399, 0.115, 0.276, 0.068, 0.287 and 0.253 seconds.
The latter was Gibbs' margin of victory at Iowa, and Bell was visibly frustrated during his post-race media interviews.
Bell will certainly win again, and maybe his late-race luck turns around during the Chase.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR Iowa winners, losers as Ty Gibbs takes Tyler Reddick's spot among title contenders
