Elliott repeats Watkins Glen victory
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Chase Elliott put an emphatic end to his summerlong struggle, making a statement with a dominating win 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 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 2.45-mile layout to become the first repeat winner in nearly a decade, since Marcos Ambrose in 2011-12.
“I think it’s huge,” Elliott said. “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 in the No. 9 Chevrolet since June at Pocono, a span of seven races. He also led 400 laps in the opening 13 races but had led only nine laps since until Sunday.
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. 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.
Seven-time champion Jimmy Johnson finished 19th as he struggles to make the playoffs.
Truex was chasing a sweep of the two traditional road races on the schedule. He won at Sonoma in June for the second straight time and has five straight top-two finishes on road courses.
Elliott won the first two stages, dominating the first, and Truex moved into contention about a third of the way through the race.
Truex began to challenge Elliott for the lead entering the first turn on Lap 55, moving briefly inside on the 90-degree, downhill right-hander but backed off to wait for another shot. They were alone at the front of the field, 12 seconds ahead when Elliott dived to pit road on Lap 60 for his final stop. Truex followed suit the next time around and was back behind Elliott, a bit farther back this time. Truex stayed back but like last year began to close the gap with 20 laps left. Elliott maintained a steady lead almost the entire stage.
NHRA
KENT, Wash. – John Force raced to his record-extending 150th Funny Car victory Sunday in the NHRA Northwest Nationals.
The 70-year-old Force won for the first time since the Colorado event last year, beating Ron Capps in the final with a 3.971-second run at 320.58 mph in the Peak Auto Lighting Chevrolet.
“It’s been 25 races, since Denver last year,” Force said. “(Crew chief Brian) Corradi and Daniel Hood and (Tim) Fabrisi have had to put up with me all year, not happy with the way the car steered, how I sat in it, not happy with so many things. And then I got the monkey on my back and it drives you nuts. You go to bed every night, but the monkey taught me so much, that you need to focus on your car if you want to do good.
“I’m just doing stuff all the time and I don’t even know my car. And you know Corradi and Coil said. ‘You’ve got to get to know your car. You’ve got to live it, you’ve got to love it. You’ve got to study the drivers.’ I said I do all that, but I wasn’t. So sometimes you need a slap in the face. And that was the monkey that made me focus.”
The 16-time season champion won for the ninth time at Pacific Raceways.
Force’s first career win came June 28, 1987, in Montreal – exactly 700 Funny Car races ago.
Austin Prock won in Top Fuel, and Matt Hartford topped the Pro Stock field.