CHASE’S PLACE
Elliott joins his dad Bill as NASCAR Cup champ
In a year unlike any other, the NASCAR Cup Series championship was won Sunday in the most unlikely way, by a driver who started last and finished first. It was sooo 2020.
Chase Elliott, on the most important day in Arizona motorsports history, found what many thought he had lost before the green flag even waved: victory lane at Phoenix Raceway.
With that came his first Cup championship, decided for the first time at the 1-mile Avondale oval, witnessed by a crowd limited by COVID-19 concerns to about
11,000.
“We did it,” said the 24-year-old son of 1988 Cup titlist Bill Elliott, winner of 44 races and a member of NASCAR’s Hall of Fame. “Unbelievable.”
All Elliott had to do was finish ahead of his Final 4 competitors, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin. Make that “all” surrounded in sarcastic quotation marks.
His No. 9 (same number Bill used) NAPA Chevrolet, a brand-new car built by Hendrick Motorsports specifically for Phoenix, flunked NASCAR’s pre-race inspection. Not once, but twice. So Elliott was ordered to the end of the 39-car field, as his three rivals started at the front.
Alan Gustafson, who now has won at Phoenix Raceway with four different drivers, said it was a section of body panel that needed to be correctly aligned.
“I didn’t feel like it was going to be a huge disadvantage,” Gustafson said. “As the race went on, I started to realize how hard it was going to be to pass (the leaders). I thought, ‘Man, that could have been a huge deciding factor.’ The guys in the championship were so fast and so good.”
When Elliott got news of the penalty, his first concern was possibly losing the advantageous first pit box. He didn’t. His next thought . . .
“If we have the car good, who cares if you start last?”
Seven-time Cup champion and teammate Jimmie Johnson, in perhaps his last out-of-the-car contribution to Hendrick Motorsports, sent Elliott and Gustafson an encouraging text.
“I said I had won coming from the back,” Johnson said. “I found, coming from the back, I had less nervous energy.
"Starting at the back was a real test of his system. I saw him before we rolled out in the cars, and he was at peace.”
Elliott, whose win last Sunday at Martinsville, Virginia, secured his first Final 4 spot, was in 20th place after only 10 of the 312 laps in the 500-kilometer event. By lap 40 he was fifth with leaders Logano, Hamlin and Keselowski in sight. Finally, he dove under Logano’s No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford exiting Turn 2 on lap 120 to grab first place.
Logano’s Mustang lost pace as the race unfolded. Hamlin, who almost seemed superglued to Logano’s bumper at times as they battled for the lead in the opening 100 laps, kept having chassis adjustments made to his No. 11 FedEx Toyota during pit stops. Keselowski’s chances felt doomed as he lost positions on three slow pit stops.
Elliott reclaimed the lead from Logano on lap 270 and finished 2.7 seconds ahead of Keselowski’s No. 22 Discount Tire Mustang. Logano was third and Hamlin fourth.
Elliott could be seen wiping away tears before he removed his helmet. He’s the third-youngest Cup champion and the third father-son combination to do so, joining Lee and Richard Petty and Ned and Dale Jarrett.
“Today symbolizes a lot of great things,” he said.
Johnson, in his final race as a fulltime Cup Series driver, was a satisfying fifth. He shared a group hug with Elliott and team owner Rick Hendrick on pit road.
“There was a lot going on there, for all three of us,” Johnson said of the emotional moment, the first time he had seen his longtime boss since March.
It’s the 13th Cup championship for Hendrick, the first since Johnson’s seventh in 2016. Even so, Hendrick has won half of the last 26 championships. His is the only team to win Cups with four different drivers.
Meanwhile, although the cars, tires and placement of traction compound were the same as in last March’s entertainment-improved race, the lack of caution periods — four for 27 laps — seemed to take an edge off the action. Restarts felt less aggressive and fewer drivers dove to the apron to attempt passes.
NASCAR’s carefully crafted plan had been to showcase its championship in the demographically diverse Valley at a track just two years removed from a $178 million modernization. It seemed perfect as a way to entice corporate CEOs to either cheer on their car or buy into what NASCAR has in terms of TV
coverage, opportunities to market products and services to a loyal fan base, and offer hospitality for customers and employees.
It was to be a stage-setter for a Roaring (20)20s featuring young new drivers, redesigned cars that it says will put the "stock" back into stock car racing, and a re-jiggered slate of more exciting races.
COVID-19 crashed those plans. But NASCAR has already announced Championship Weekend will be back in 2021.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if Elliott, voted most popular driver the last two years, returns as the face of the sport.
Johnson, until yesterday the senior member of the Hendrick team, said he was impressed when he spoke with Elliott earlier in the week.
“I could tell that his head was in the right place,” Johnson said. “He didn’t have unneeded nerves and anxiety flowing through him. He really was calm and ready to get to work.
“We talk a lot and he has an amazing grasp on things. Being as young as he is, he has a ton of wisdom and knowledge. I’m always amazed when we chat how put together his thoughts are. At his age, mine were scrambled. I was all over the place.
“He really is wise beyond his years. And with that maturity, extremely talented.”
Hendrick, who signed Elliott at age 14, perhaps inadvertently laid down a huge marker in one more nod to Johnson’s historic career.
“Seven’s a big number,” he said, with at least a tinge of humor. “It’s something to shoot at.
“I think he’s (Elliott) got a lot left in his tank. He’s going to be a great asset for our sport as champion.”
He was Sunday, on his and Arizona motorsports’ Big Day. The last really was first.