For Chase Elliott, racing on the short tracks around the southeast meant sometimes having to bump against someone to edge out the win.
On Saturday, those skills earned the Dawsonville, Georgia speedster his first career superspeedway victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series PowerShares QQQ 300 at Daytona International Speedway.
Elliott moved high to block the car of Joey Logano with half a lap to go. Logano pushed Elliott’s No. 88 through turns three and four. Coming off the final turn, Logano moved to the high line to try to pass coming to the finish line.
But Elliott would have none of it.
Elliott moved high to defend the spot as the two cars made contact several times, and managed to beat the defending Daytona 500 winner to the checkered flag.
“I knew he was going to make some type of move,” Elliott said. “He faked me to the bottom. I wasn’t sure, I went down there a little bit. I saw him go back to the top. I tried to follow him back up. I didn’t get up soon enough to, you know, get in front of his nose. He already had a nose there. I was kind of committed to already coming up.
“We hit. I thought we were wrecked, which fortunately we didn’t. I didn’t know if we were going to make it across the line or what was going to happen. Once I realized his momentum stopped, I tried to get away from him to keep the draft from pulling me back anymore. Just fortunate and got lucky with how it worked out. He did a good job setting me up. It was just a tick too far behind to get in front of his nose.”
The win makes Elliott the youngest Xfinity Series winner in Daytona history. On Sunday, he’ll be the youngest driver to bring the field to green for the Daytona 500 as the pole sitter. But Elliott was quick to point out success on Saturday does not mean the same on Sunday.
“The races are so different, I think it’s hard to really take a whole lot,” he said. “I think the success of today does not have any guarantee, there’s no guarantee tomorrow’s going to go good.”
For Elliott’s car owner, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., it was another piece of Daytona history, as his JR Motorsports team has now won this race twice and a total of three races at Daytona.
“Chase obviously did what he had to do there at the end of the race,” the two time Daytona 500 winner said. “I thought that was very gutsy to be able to really put such an aggressive block on the 22. He did what he had to do.”
It was the final caution that set up Elliott’s victory, when Ray Black, Jr.’s car rolled to a stop on the backstretch with 19 laps to go. When the race went back to green with 13 laps to go, Elliott moved around Logano to take the lead with a push from behind from Daniel Suarez.
When the pack hit the backstretch, Elliott dove to the inside line while his teammate, Elliott Sadler, dove to the inside of Logano, hanging Logano out with no drafting help and moving Sadler to second.
Over the closing laps, Logano worked to get back in a position to contend for the win.
But when he got there, Elliott was ready for him. The 20-year-old drove like a 20 year veteran, moving up to take the run away from Logano on the last lap, and crowding him coming to the flag like a short track ace.
“I had no problem with it,” Logano said. “That’s what I expect. I’m a racer. I expect him to make the move so I don’t win. He did exactly what he’s supposed to do, the same thing I would do, not expecting any repercussions back. That’s racing. That’s what the fans pay money to come see, come to this beautiful facility to watch, great racing. That’s what we saw today.”
In a race usually known for its on track carnage, the so called “Big One” never materialized. The closest incident came on lap 13, when several cars in the lead pack checked up. Bobby Labonte, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, was tagged from behind by Elliott, sending Labonte out of control. Brandon Jones, Erik Jones, Kyle Larson and Jeb Burton were also involved, but everyone was able to continue.
Elliott talked afterwards about the contact with Labonte.
“I’m not sure if it was my fault there with Bobby and some of those guys on the backstretch. If it was my fault, I need to take full credit for that. I don’t really know what happened. We got stacked up. I got in back of him. I was being pushed. Regardless, if it was my fault, I apologize now. I didn’t get a chance to on TV.”
Elliott’s teammate, Kasey Kahne, finished in third, with Sadler fourth and Austin Dillon in fifth.
Darrell Wallace, Jr., Brandon Jones, Suarez, Blake Koch and Brendan Gaughan rounded out the top ten.
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
PowerShares QQQ 300 – Feb. 20, 2016
1. (19) Chase Elliott(i), Chevrolet, 120
2. (8) Joey Logano(i), Ford, 120
3. (15) Kasey Kahne(i), Chevrolet, 120
4. (10) Elliott Sadler, Chevrolet, 120
5. (4) Austin Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 120
6. (12) Darrell Wallace, Jr., Ford, 120
7. (7) Brandon Jones #, Chevrolet, 120
8. (2) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 120
9. (9) Blake Koch, Chevrolet, 120
10. (6) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 120
11. (24) Aric Almirola(i), Ford, 120
12. (16) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 120
13. (1) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 120
14. (18) Dakoda Armstrong, Toyota, 120
15. (37) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 119
16. (11) Ryan Reed, Ford, 119
17. (14) John Wes Townley(i), Chevrolet, 119
18. (23) David Starr, Toyota, 119
19. (28) Joe Nemechek(i), Toyota, 119
20. (25) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 119
21. (20) Matt Tifft(i), Toyota, 119
22. (36) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 118
23. (3) Bobby Labonte(i), Toyota, 118
24. (38) B.J. McLeod #, Ford, 118
25. (21) Jeb Burton, Ford, 118
26. (29) Anthony Kumpen, Chevrolet, 118
27. (13) Brennan Poole #, Chevrolet, 117
28. (35) Chris Cockrum, Chevrolet, 117
29. (30) Scott Lagasse, Jr., Chevrolet, 117
30. (33) Eric McClure, Chevrolet, 117
31. (5) Erik Jones #, Toyota, 115
32. (39) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 114
33. (32) Ray Black, Jr. #, Chevrolet, 114
34. (17) Kyle Larson(i), Chevrolet, 111
35. (22) Benny Gordon, Toyota, Transmission, 103
36. (26) Morgan Shepherd, Chevrolet, Rear Gear, 59
37. (40) Jeff Green, Chevrolet, Transmission, 50
38. (34) Martin Roy, Chevrolet, Accident, 22
39. (27) Bobby Gerhart, Chevrolet, Accident, 6
40. (31) Ryan Preece #, Chevrolet, Accident, 5
Average Speed of Race Winner: 151.176 mph.
Time of Race: 01 Hrs, 59 Mins, 04 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.043 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 17 laps.
Lead Changes: 19 among 9 drivers.
Lap Leaders: T. Dillon 0; A. Dillon(i) 1-2; J. Logano(i) 3-14; C. Elliott(i) 15-18; B. Gaughan 19; A. Dillon(i) 20-21; B. Gaughan 22-26; K. Kahne(i) 27; A. Dillon(i) 28; T. Dillon 29-30; K. Kahne(i) 31-56; J. Nemechek(i) 57-58; A. Almirola(i) 59-67; B. Gaughan 68-70; K. Kahne(i) 71-73; J. Logano(i) 74-95; C. Elliott(i) 96; E. Sadler 97-100; J. Logano(i) 101-106; C. Elliott(i) 107-120.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): J. Logano(i) 3 times for 40 laps; K. Kahne(i) 3 times for 30 laps; C. Elliott(i) 3 times for 19 laps; A. Almirola(i) 1 time for 9 laps; B. Gaughan 3 times for 9 laps; A. Dillon(i) 3 times for 5 laps; E. Sadler 1 time for 4 laps; T. Dillon 1 time for 2 laps; J. Nemechek(i) 1 time for 2 laps.
Top 10 in Points: E. Sadler – 38; D. Wallace Jr – 35; B. Jones # – 34; D. Suarez – 33; B. Koch – 32; B. Gaughan – 32; J. Allgaier – 29; T. Dillon – 29; D. Armstrong – 27; J. Clements – 26.
