Chase Elliott made it a lock for Georgia drivers in NASCAR Cup Series competition at Road America.
The first time the series competed there, Georgia Racing Hall of Famer Tim Flock scored the win in August of 1956.
Almost 65 years later, it was another Peach State racer taking the win in the series’ return to the 4.100 mile road course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Elliott took the lead for the final time with 17 laps to go, pushing his way around Kyle Busch to take the point.
From there, the Dawsonville, Georgia native drove his No. 9 Chevrolet out to almost a six second advantage en route to the victory.
“Just really proud of our team for overcoming some adversity early and having to start in the back, having good pit stops,” said Elliott. “Had a really fast NAPA Chevrolet. Just so proud.”
It’s Elliott’s second win of the season – the first coming on the Circuit of the Americas road course in a rain shortened event – and his seventh on a road course in his career.
The win moves him into third on the all-time road course win list in the NASCAR Cup Series, trailing all-time leader Jeff Gordon (9) and Tony Stewart (8).
It’s also Elliott’s 13th career series victory, and it gives Hendrick Motorsports its 10th win in 20 races so far this season.
“Yeah, it’s just this track has a lot of character to it,” Elliott said. “It’s so long. You have a lot of opportunity to make mistakes or be good whenever you hit it.
“I mean, four miles is a long course. Just has a lot of character to it, a lot of bumps, a lot of sections that are really tricky to get through. I think conserving your tire was actually a little bit of a thing today, which to be honest we don’t have much of that I feel like any more.”
After being unable to complete a lap in qualifying due to cautions flying as he attempted to get up to speed, the Dawsonville, Georgia racer had to start the day from the 34th starting spot, making it a challenge to add to his road course win total.
Challenge accepted.
Elliott worked his way into the top 10 by the end of the first segment, and then pitted before the end of the second segment to work pit strategy for the start of the final segment.
From there, Elliott charged to the lead on the restart on lap 33, and held it until the final caution of the day flew on lap 43 when Anthony Alfredo spun in turn 1 due to a blown tire.
While the leaders hit pit road, Ryan Blaney moved to the lead after pitting early to mend damage to his car.
On the restart, Elliott drove his way to second quickly as he and Busch made short work of Blaney and Aric Almirola.
Elliott then hounded Busch at every turn, finally shoving his way past to take the lead as the duo raced out of the kink.
From there, Elliott drove away to record the victory.
“Yeah, I never felt like I got in a real good rhythm all of yesterday (in practice),” Elliott said. “For whatever reason there, after about halfway through the race, I started finding some of that rhythm, was able to put it together, piece different parts of the track. Finally, I felt like I was able to piece most of it together.”
Christopher Bell, who scored his first career series win earlier this year on the Daytona International Speedway infield road course, charged late to finish in second.
“Yeah, I think it was close, closer than anyone else was to the 9 (Elliott),” said Bell. “That was good. At the end of the race everyone was telling me that I was matching if not a little better lap times, so never had track position to start up there with him and see what we had against the whole run. I’m sure he was saving a little bit to make sure if there was a restart there or something, but that was a lot of fun.”
Kyle Busch looked to have a shot a sweeping the weekend after winning Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race on the 14-turn road course. But in the end, he found himself first bypassed by Elliott and then by his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Bell, relegating him to a third place result.
It was still a strong finish given that Busch started the day last in a back up car after crashing his primary No. 18 Toyota in practice on Saturday.
“We kept working on it, making adjustments there,” said Busch. “We just did not have the tire life the 9 (Elliott) did. That was incredible. He was able to drive away from us. His braking was really good, but his drive off was awesome. They beat us by far today, but proud of the Skittles bunch, everybody on this Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry did a good job. We all ran up front. We all had good speed. It showed that we were close. That was all we had, but overall good day fighting through traffic.”
Kurt Busch rebounded from an off track excursion near the end of the second segment to finish in fourth, with Denny Hamlin in fifth.
Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex, Jr. and Matt DiBenedetto rounded out the top 10.
While Elliott celebrated in victory lane, two of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates were left to wonder what might have been.
William Byron started the day on the pole, and won the first segment of the race. After finishing second in the second segment to Reddick, Byron saw his hopes for a strong finish go away with a solo spin on lap 48. In the end, he rolled home to a 33rd place finish.
Kyle Larson was another pre-race favorite who hovered in the top five for the first two segments of the race. He was fighting for fourth place with teammate Alex Bowman with six laps to go when the two made contact in turn 5, sending Larson spinning and leaving Bowman with damage. Bowman would have to bring his car to pit road for repairs, and would finish 22nd. Larson would recover from the spin, and finished in 16th position.
While Sunday’s race had plenty of pushing and shoving, it was remarkably clean in terms of caution flags, as the event was slowed only two times for on-track incidents.
NASCAR Cup Series
Road America – Elkhart Lake, WI
Jockey Made in America 250 – July 4, 2021
1. (34) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 62.
2. (13) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 62.
3. (40) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 62.
4. (16) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 62.
5. (6) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 62.
6. (35) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 62.
7. (8) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 62.
8. (4) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 62.
9. (9) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 62.
10. (7) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 62.
11. (37) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 62.
12. (38) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, 62.
13. (20) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 62.
14. (19) Aric Almirola, Ford, 62.
15. (14) Joey Logano, Ford, 62.
16. (2) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 62.
17. (15) Cole Custer, Ford, 62.
18. (12) Chris Buescher, Ford, 62.
19. (21) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 62.
20. (17) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 62.
21. (23) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 62.
22. (10) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 62.
23. (27) Josh Bilicki, Ford, 62.
24. (36) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 62.
25. (22) Justin Haley(i), Chevrolet, 62.
26. (39) Ty Dillon(i), Toyota, 62.
27. (25) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 62.
28. (26) James Davison, Chevrolet, 62.
29. (3) A.J. Allmendinger(i), Chevrolet, 62.
30. (18) Michael McDowell, Ford, 62.
31. (29) Cody Ware(i), Chevrolet, 62.
32. (28) Ryan Newman, Ford, 62.
33. (1) William Byron, Chevrolet, 62.
34. (33) Quin Houff, Chevrolet, 62.
35. (30) Kyle Tilley, Ford, 60.
36. (11) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 53.
37. (24) Anthony Alfredo #, Ford, Brakes, 42.
38. (5) Austin Cindric(i), Ford, Rear Gear, 35.
39. (31) Ryan Eversley, Ford, Rear Gear, 27.
40. (32) Ryan Preece, Chevrolet, Engine, 6.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 86.271 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 54 Mins, 33 Secs. Margin of Victory: 5.705 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 9 laps.
Lead Changes: 10 among 8 drivers.
Lap Leaders: W. Byron 1-15;M. Truex Jr. 16;*. Cindric(i) 17-18;M. DiBenedetto 19-23;K. Busch 24-26;T. Reddick 27-31;K. Busch 32;M. DiBenedetto 33-37;C. Elliott 38-44;A. Almirola 45;C. Elliott 46-62.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Chase Elliott 2 times for 24 laps; William Byron 1 time for 15 laps; Matt DiBenedetto 2 times for 10 laps; Tyler Reddick 1 time for 5 laps; Kyle Busch 2 times for 4 laps; * Austin Cindric(i) 1 time for 2 laps; Martin Truex Jr. 1 time for 1 lap; Aric Almirola 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 24,16,5,8,42,11,20,48,1,9
Stage #2 Top Ten: 8,24,42,5,1,22,4,23,77,18
Playoff Standings: 1. Kyle Larson – 795 (4 Wins); 2. Martin Truex, Jr. – 634 (3 Wins); 3. Alex Bowman – 561 (3 Wins); 4. Kyle Busch – 685(2 Wins); 5. Chase Elliott – 674 (2 Wins); 6. William Byron – 713 (1 Win); 7. Joey Logano – 678 (1 Win); 8. Ryan Blaney – 603 (1 Win); 9. Brad Keselowski – 593 (1 Win); 10. Christopher Bell – 463 (1 Win); 11. Michael McDowell – 426 (1 Win); 12. Denny Hamlin – 798 (Points Leader); 13. Kevin Harvick – 599; 14. Austin Dillon – 544; 15. Tyler Reddick – 521; 16. Kurt Busch – 471.
