NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — William Byron admitted he was nervous as he headed into the final laps of the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Iowa Speedway.

“But I feel like we’ve been on the other side of this in the last month and a half,” he said.

Byron fought off fuel worries in the closing laps. He went the last 144 laps of the 350-lap race without a stop en route to his second victory of the season — he won the Daytona 500 in February — and 15th overall. He also took the season points lead from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott.

Byron, who was second last season in this race, lost gambles on fuel twice this season, at Michigan and Indianapolis, but held on with the help of a caution-filled final stage to win by 1.192 seconds over pole-sitter Chase Briscoe.

“I really feel we needed to win a race,” said Byron, who led 141 laps. “We deserved to win a race.”

Byron led the first 67 during a caution-free first stage, but had to scramble with strategy as the cautions piled up.

“You never expect it to be a fuel-mileage race,” he said. “But there were so many weird cautions.”

The drivers behind Byron, who knew he was saving fuel, tried to catch him.

“It was just the way the yellows fell,” said Brad Keselowski, who finished third. “There were so many yellows there in stage 3 that it got (Byron) and (Briscoe) there where they could make it on fuel pitting way outside the window, and we couldn’t get by them. “