NASCAR has new road-racing ace in Chase Elliott

The Daytona Road Course provided an interesting moment in the NASCAR Cup Series timeline and produced a new road-racing ace in Chase Elliott. All signs point to this being a onetime affair over the 3.61-mile course at Daytona International Speedway. Watkins Glen International won’t have to worry about losing its permanent place on the Cup schedule. The race did provide some surprising results, such as Kaz Grala’s seventhplace showing in his Cup Series debut. FIRST GEAR: Elliott has become quite a good road racer. He has won three consecutive races on three different tracks since the second half of the 2019 season. He won at The Glen, Charlotte Roval (2019) and now the Daytona Road Course and joins a rather elite group of drivers in NASCAR history to accomplish that feat. Elliott became the sixth driver to win three or more consecutive road course races. Jeff Gordon tops the list with six consecutive road-race victories. Elliott joins Tony Stewart (three consecutive wins: 2004-05), Jeff Gordon (six: 1997-2000), Rusty Wallace (three: 1987-88), Tim Richmond (three: 198687) and David Pearson (three (1976-77). All but Richmond are in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. SECOND GEAR: Grala got a lot of questions thrown at him by the media following his unlikely seventh-place finish at Daytona. Grala thinks his fifth-place finish at Road America the week before Daytona helped him land in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevy as a sub for ailing Austin Dillon. He was giddy with the outcome. “We were able to lead laps in my NASCAR Cup Series debut, and it was fun to mix it up with some of my childhood heroes,” Grala said, adding he was honored to have the chance to race Jimmie Johnson. THIRD GEAR: If you thought the Daytona Road Course slate was busy, take a peek at the Dover International Speedway schedule. It starts with an ARCA Series race Friday. ARCA is now under the NASCAR umbrella. That race is followed by a Truck Series race. On Saturday and Sunday there are back-to-back Xfinity Seriescup Series doubleheaders. After that, the Cup Series syncs with its original schedule when the tour returns to Daytona on Aug. 29 for the Coke Zero Sugar 400, then it’s on to the playoffs. That next Daytona race will be a traditional stock-car run over the tri-oval. FOURTH GEAR: If Jimmie Johnson has any chance of making the playoffs, Dover will give him the opportunity. Johnson is in the points hole thanks in part to missing the race at Indianapolis when he tested positive for COVID-19. The Daytona Road Course provided a much needed boost. He finished a strong fourth. Now he is heading to the “Monster Mile” where he has won 11 races throughout his career. “That was a really fun and a solid day (at Daytona), that’s what we needed and now we go to my favorite track, Dover,” Johnson said.

[NIGEL COOK] Chase Elliott has won three straight road races on different tracks since the 2019 NASCAR season.