Elliott cruises to another victory at Watkins Glen
Chase Elliott put an emphatic end to his summer-long struggle, making a statement with a dominating win in the Go Bowling on the road course at Watkins Glen International.
A year after racing to his first career NASCAR Cup victory at The Glen, Elliott won a second time in the No. 9 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports on Sunday, besting Martin Truex Jr. just as he did a year ago.
Elliott, who started from the pole, led 80 of 90 laps around the speedy 2.45mile layout to become the first repeat winner in nearly a decade, since Marcos Ambrose in 2011-12.
“I think it’s huge,” Elliott said after his fifth career win. “We’ve had fast cars at times, but one thing or another ended up for a bad weekend. The way we did it was the biggest thing. That’s the kind of effort you have to put on often to compete with the guys in the field.”
Elliott had already qualified for the postseason with his win at Talladega in May, but after four straight top-fives he hadn’t had a top-10 finish since June at Pocono, a span of seven races.
It was a two-car race for more than half the 220.5- mile distance and the entire final 40 laps.
Truex began to exert some pressure after sitting behind Elliott for more than 10 laps in the final segment. Elliott held his ground until Truex’s No 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota closed with six laps to go, waiting to pounce on a mistake that never came.
“I tried to do all I could. Chase did an excellent job just not making mistakes,” Truex said. “He hit his marks. His car was really fast in the key areas that you need to be. I just couldn’t get a run on him.
“Really, it was all about restarts and track position,” Truex said. “If I could have just got by him on that last one we could have set sail.”
With two laps left, Truex still couldn’t get close enough to make a move as Elliott drove flawlessly, winning by 0.454 seconds.
Denny Hamlin was third, Erik Jones fourth for Gibbs and Ryan Blaney fifth in his No. 22 Penske Racing Ford after starting from the rear of the field.
Formula One: Lewis Hamilton overtook Max Verstappen near the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix to earn his 81st victory and extend his championship lead.
The Mercedes driver is now only 10 wins behind seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher’s record of 91.