Brad Keselowski reacts to coming up short at Iowa, recaps wild third stage

In a season full of ups and downs, Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway was the best performance for Brad Keselowski in 2025. Keselowski won Stages 1 and 2, picking up his first playoff points of the NASCAR Cup Series season.

Unfortunately for Keselowski, there was no stages sweep. The caution-filled Stage 3 allowed drivers such as William Byron and Chase Briscoe to make it to the end of the race on fuel despite pitting well outside the window. Byron, Briscoe and Keselowski finished one, two and three, respectively. After the race, Keselowski reflected on what went wrong.

“The way the yellows fell, there were so many yellows there in Stage 3 that it got the 24 and the 19 where they could make it on fuel pitting way outside the window. We just couldn’t get back by them,” Keselowski said on the USA Network post-show. “Got back by a lot of guys, got all the way up to third, but that was as far as I could get. … Great run for both of our RFK cars. Obviously, we want to win, but we’re in contention, for sure.”

This was a great day for Keselowski. He had arguably the fastest car in the field, leading 68 laps. He accumulated a race-high 55 points, advancing a whopping eight spots in the points standings. But at this point in the campaign, that doesn’t matter much for Keselowski. He needs to win to qualify for the postseason. Keselowski still has three more opportunities to get it done, but this is one that got away.

Brad Keselowski strong at Iowa, picks up P3 result

In the end, Byron saved enough fuel while maintaining a healthy pace over Briscoe. Keselowski couldn’t quite get past Briscoe for second, which would have been the race for the win had Byron run out of fuel. Keselowski just needed a few more breaks to go his way.

“[Ryan] Blaney was really fast there at the end. He had a little bit newer tires and was running us down,” Keselowski said. “I feel like I was gonna get the 19, but Blaney was gonna pass me. It was a solid day, just needed a few more things to go our way.”

With Iowa behind him, Keselowski will turn his attention to next Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen International. Keselowski has three runner-up finishes in 14 starts at Watkins Glen.

“Watkins Glen has been good for us,” Keselowski said. “It’s been a good track for me — my teammate won there last year [Chris Buescher]. Just keep putting solid runs on the board and I feel like this will come to us. We’ve got some pretty strong Ford Mustangs right now.”