Chase Elliott secures advancement
Wins NASCAR Cup playoff 2nd-round opener
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 Sunday 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 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 and earned redemption after his heartbreaking loss one year ago at this track. Last year, Elliott led 59 laps in the final stage before watching Kyle Busch overtake him with two laps to go, forcing Elliott to settle for second.
“What a great day for Chase. I’m so proud of him, especially after last year,” Hendrick said. “He’s smart. He’s like his dad (NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott). He knows how to race and has unbelievable car control.”
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 pits stops on lap 319. Two laps later, the Dover spring race 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 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.”
Clint Bowyer, who finished runnerup to Harvick in May, suffered a flat tire with 18 laps remaining after contending for the lead earlier in the race. Ten laps later, things went from bad to worse when he slammed into the wall, ending his day and leaving him with the worst finish among playoff drivers (35th).
“I’m just really disappointed,” Bowyer said after being checked and released from the infield care center. “I’m frustrated with our day, obviously. We had a very fast race car.”
Bowyer also expressed disappointment for his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Almirola, who was leading the race before Bowyer’s crash brought out the caution. “I’m just sick for Aric. He had that race won. It was his win, and unfortunately his teammate had trouble and took him out of it.”
Almirola was able to salvage a 13thplace finish, in front of Keselowski and Truex, who finished 14th and 15th, respectively. Among other playoff drivers, Kyle Busch came home eighth, Ryan Blaney 11th, Kyle Larson 12th and Bowman 28th.
Almirola was clearly devastated at seeing a victory slip from his grasp.
“We’ve had so many opportunities and been so close and had the car to win and been in position, and I don’t know — it just seems to not come through,” he said. “I’m frustrated and mad and angry. ... I feel like we should be over there in victory lane celebrating, but we’re not.”