Elliott roars back after penalty to win
DOVER, Del. — For the second week in a row, the intensity of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs reared its head in the closing laps.
As drivers took the green flag with four laps remaining for what appeared to be the final restart of the day at Dover International Speedway, the tantalizing prospect of a win had the field going for broke. But that mad dash to the finish produced a collision among some of the leaders that resulted in massive damage to numerous playoff participants. Brad Keselowski, Aric Almirola, Martin Truex Jr. and Alex Bowman were all caught up in the crash that brought out the red flag and sent the race to overtime.
Chase Elliott took advantage of the unexpected opportunity to earn his second career Cup win, holding off Denny Hamlin on the overtime restart to take the checkered flag in the Gander Outdoors 400.
“We had a penalty there early and fell behind, but luckily we had a good enough car and a good enough strategy to come back,” Elliott said after thanking his team owner, Rick Hendrick.
Elliott became the first driver to clinch a berth in the Round of 8.
Joey Logano finished third, followed by Erik Jones and Kurt Busch.
For Kevin Harvick, Sunday was a case of a dominating drive turning into disaster.
Harvick, who seemed well on his way to his eighth victory of the season, had led 286 laps when he hit pit road for green-flag pit stops on lap 319. Two laps later, the Dover spring winner was forced to return after his left rear tire went flat when a lug nut broke a valve stem. Harvick rebounded to finish sixth but surely left Dover disappointed.
“You can’t control where the lug nuts fly,” a resigned Harvick said. “Our Ford was really fast, and that’s it . ... We were lucky there avoiding that crash, but maybe that makes up for losing the race with an absolutely dominant car.”
Another favorite, Clint Bowyer suffered a flat tire with 18 laps remaining after contending for the lead earlier in the race.