Road course king Elliott wins as NASCAR Cup races on wet tyres
Chase Elliott is NASCAR Cup’s resident road course specialist – a reputation the Hendrick Motorsports driver enhanced in last Sunday’s race on the Charlotte ‘roval’.
For the first time in the history of the Cup series, a race started with cars on wet tyres, thanks to Hurricane Delta lashing North Carolina, although thankfully the situation had improved greatly from Saturday night when the NASCAR
Xfinity Series and IMSA Sportscar raced in monsoon-like conditions.
Elliott assumed the lead of the race on lap eight of what would become a 109-tour encounter, but stage one would be claimed by Ty Dillon – who was the first to swap to slicks under the lap 10 caution as the track quickly dried.
Stage two, won by Team Penske’s
Ryan Blaney, was crucial for reigning champion Kyle Busch and his hopes of advancing to the next playoff round. Winless all season, Busch was forced to pit on lap 64 owing to a puncture resulting from midfield contact.
This early stop cycled the Joe Gibbs Racing driver to the lead on lap 88 after a caution period when he elected not to stop, but he was soon swamped by teammate Erik Jones and Elliott on lap 91, going on to finish 30th after a late stop.
Elliott swooped by Jones on the next tour to bag his fourth successive road course win, second on the roval and third of 2020, ahead of Joey Logano and Jones.
Busch was one of four eliminated at the Round of 12 quarter-final stage, with Aric Almirola, Austin Dillon and the retiring Clint Bowyer also dropping out.