Chase Elliott held off a late race challenge from Denny Hamlin to score the victory on Sunday on the Daytona International Speedway infield road course.
Elliott took the lead for the last time with 11 laps to go, and drove away from all competition by almost a 10-second margin in the first NASCAR Cup Series on the 3.61-mile, 14-turn infield road course.
But a late caution for a crash by Kyle Busch set up a three lap shoot-out. After getting a good start on the final drop of the green flag, Elliott was able to hold off Hamlin over the final two circuits to snag the win.
“Our guys did a phenomenal job, the Dawsonville, Georgia racer said. “We just had a phenomenal car.” the Dawsonville, Georgia racer said.
It’s the second win of the season for Elliott – not counting the non-points victory in the All Star Race in July. It’s his fourth career road course victory, with two coming at Watkins Glen and one on the Charlotte infield road course.
It’s also his eighth career series win, and gives his Hendrick Motorsports team a shot of momentum with just three races left until the start of the Playoffs.
“I don’t think I did anything very special today, Elliott said. “I think Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and all our guys did a really good job pitting there at the start. We made a couple really small adjustments, I felt like, there, at that first stop and I was really kind of able to leave it after that. So, I just appreciate everybody that makes this happen.”
Elliott’s win also adds to the win totals for drivers from Dawsonville in the Cup Series between the original beach course and the superspeedway. He joins legendary drivers such as Lloyd Seay, Roy Parks, Bernard Long and his own father, Bill Elliott.
But it’s the first for anyone on the road course built into the Daytona International Speedway, which usually only plays host to stock cars on the 2.5-mile superspeedway layout.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NASCAR moved the race to the Daytona road course after being unable to run this weekend on the Watkins Glen road course in New York.
Regardless, it was a hometown win, leading the folks at the Dawsonville Pool Room to fire off the “si-reen” to honor Elliott’s victory.
“Thanks to the fans. Good to see you guys back,” Elliott said. “Appreciate you all coming out. And, just thanks to all our partners and Chevrolet. I spent a lot of time with them this past week. A special thanks to Jordan Taylor and Boris Said for reaching out and being willing to help this weekend, some road course ringers. I tried to lean on them and luckily everything worked out.”
Hamlin used pit strategy to win the second segment of the race, but that put him further back in the top 10 on the start of the final segment. He battled his way back up to second, giving him a shot at Elliott in the final moments of the race, but he came up short.
“I just would have liked to have stayed closer to him (Chase Elliott) to put a little pressure on entries,” said Hamlin. “My entries were the strong point against him, but I was giving him four car lengths so he could kind of drive the entries the way he wanted to make sure he got a good exit. I wasn’t quite clean enough the last few laps, but I definitely gave myself a chance. Those last couple corners, I felt like I did as much as I could to get to him and tried to do it the right way.”
The only other car that seemed to have anything for Elliott on the day was Martin Truex, Jr. Truex was leading the second segment of the race when he made a pit stop with a few laps left in the segment on a strategic call.
But that backfired when he was nabbed for speeding while exiting pit road. That would put him at the back of the field on the start of the final segment. He would pull his way up to third before the end.
“Just a strong run for our Bass Pro Toyota,” said Truex, Jr. “Thought we had a chance to win, no doubt about it. Just got caught speeding on pit road. Had to go to the rear and then got damage so we had to go to the rear again. We passed a lot of cars that last run. I know we had the speed at the end there, we were faster than anyone. Just ran out of time, but that’s how it goes. Proud of everybody on the team and still feeling really good about these road courses.”
Another expected contender on the day was Kyle Busch. After having to pit early with a flat-spotted tire, Busch had worked his way back to second behind Elliott coming to the final round of pit stops. But it went south for the No. 18 Toyota when a brake rotor failure sent him to the garage area for repairs.
After bringing the car back out after repairs, a tire failure with five laps to go sent Kyle Busch’s car into the backstretch wall drawing the final caution of the day. He would be credited with a 37th place finish, some 12 laps down.
Jimmie Johnson finished in fourth, with Chris Buescher in fifth.
Clint Bowyer finished in sixth, with Kaz Grala – substituting for Austin Dillon, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday – in seventh in his first NASCAR Cup Series start.
William Byron, Joey Logano and Michael McDowell rounded out the top 10.
The race was halted for just over half an hour due to lightning in the area on lap 38 of the 65 lap event. Once the lightning hold was cleared, the race resumed and ran to its scheduled conclusion.
NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway Road Course – Daytona Beach, FL
Go Bowling 235 – August 16, 2020
1. (7) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 65.
2. (2) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 65.
3. (3) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 65.
4. (11) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 65.
5. (21) Chris Buescher, Ford, 65.
6. (12) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 65.
7. (10) Kaz Grala(i), Chevrolet, 65.
8. (13) William Byron, Chevrolet, 65.
9. (5) Joey Logano, Ford, 65.
10. (30) Michael McDowell, Ford, 65.
11. (20) Erik Jones, Toyota, 65.
12. (27) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 65.
13. (17) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 65.
14. (8) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 65.
15. (9) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 65.
16. (25) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, 65.
17. (1) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 65.
18. (18) Tyler Reddick #, Chevrolet, 65.
19. (14) Ryan Newman, Ford, 65.
20. (23) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 65.
21. (15) Christopher Bell #, Toyota, 65.
22. (26) Cole Custer #, Ford, 65.
23. (22) Ryan Preece, Chevrolet, 65.
24. (6) Aric Almirola, Ford, 65.
25. (19) Bubba Wallace, Chevrolet, 65.
26. (16) Matt Kenseth, Chevrolet, 65.
27. (31) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 65.
28. (33) Brennan Poole #, Chevrolet, 65.
29. (37) Timmy Hill(i), Toyota, 65.
30. (38) James Davison, Ford, 65.
31. (24) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 65.
32. (29) Corey LaJoie, Ford, 65.
33. (35) Quin Houff #, Chevrolet, 64.
34. (32) J.J. Yeley(i), Ford, 64.
35. (28) John Hunter Nemechek #, Ford, Accident, 62.
36. (36) Garrett Smithley(i), Ford, Battery, 60.
37. (4) Kyle Busch, Toyota, Accident, 53.
38. (34) Stanton Barrett, Chevrolet, 49.
39. (39) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, Transmission, 46.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 89.39 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 37 Mins, 30 Secs. Margin of Victory: .202 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 7 laps.
Lead Changes: 13 among 6 drivers.
Lap Leaders: K. Harvick 0;D. Hamlin 1;K. Busch 2;D. Hamlin 3-9;M. Truex Jr. 10-12;C. Elliott 13-16;J. Logano 17;D. Hamlin 18-21;M. Truex Jr. 22-27;D. Hamlin 28-31;C. Elliott 32-48;M. Truex Jr. 49;K. Grala(i) 50-52;C. Elliott 53-65.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Chase Elliott 3 times for 34 laps; Denny Hamlin 4 times for 16 laps; Martin Truex Jr. 3 times for 10 laps; Kaz Grala(i) 1 time for 3 laps; Joey Logano 1 time for 1 lap; Kyle Busch 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 9,22,48,14,21,20,24,19,41,37
Stage #2 Top Ten: 11,14,12,24,47,37,9,4,1,32
Top 10 in Points: 1. Kevin Harvick- 939 (6 Wins); 2. Denny Hamlin – 821 (5 Wins); 3. Brad Keselowski – 803 (3 Wins); 4. Chase Elliott – 775 (2 Wins); 5. Ryan Blaney – 755 (1 Win); 6. Joey Logano – 754 (2 Wins); 7. Martin Truex, Jr. – 753 (1 Win); 8. Aric Almirola – 682; 9. Kurt Busch – 673; 10. Kyle Busch – 652.
