NASCAR road warrior
Hendrick driver clinches playoffs, two shy of record
Chase Elliott wins seventh career road race despite poor starting position.
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — Even a start near the back of the pack couldn’t prevent Chase Elliott from continuing his uncanny success on road courses.
Elliott started in the 34th position but still found a way to win the NASCAR Cup Series at Road America on Sunday to wrap up a playoff spot. The 25-year-old Hendrick Motorsports has seven career Cup Series victories on road courses, putting him in sole possession of third place in NASCAR history.
“I really have no idea,” Elliott said about his success on road courses. “I feel like it’s just good cars. Our team as a whole has been good at road courses the whole time too, Kyle (Larson) won at Sonoma. I feel like drivers are only as good as what they have to drive. Fortunately I feel like I’ve got the best stuff and just got to make it work.”
Elliott started so far back because a couple of cautions hampered his qualifying attempts on Sunday morning.
It ended up not mattering as Elliott won by 5.705 seconds over Christopher Bell. Kyle Busch was third, followed by Kurt Busch and points leader Denny Hamlin.
Kyle Busch took a brief lead on a restart on the 46th of 62 laps, but Elliott caught up to him at Turn 11 and had passed him by Turn 12. The restart followed a caution that came when Anthony Alfredo spun off course.
Elliott stayed in front the rest of the way.
Elliott, the 2020 series champion, gave Hendrick Motorsports its seventh victory in its last eight Cup races. Hendrick had its six-race winning streak snapped last weekend when Kyle Busch won at Pocono for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Hendrick drivers have won 10 of the 20 Cup Series races so far this year.
Elliott needs only two more road-course victories to catch Jeff Gordon, who has the record with nine. Tony Stewart won eight Cup Series events on road courses.
He already is the first person ever to win Cup Series races on five different road courses: Watkins Glen, Charlotte, Circuit of the Americas, Daytona and Road America.
This race also offered good news for Bell, who had his first top-five finish since placing fourth at Richmond in April.
“It’s been a trying last two months, but we feel like we’re getting back on track here,” Bell said. “There’s no reason why we can’t be running up front every week.”
This marked the first time NASCAR has brought its premier series to Road America since Tim Flock won a rainy Grand National race in 1956, and the long-awaited return attracted over 100,000 spectators for the entire four-day event.
Those fans braved Fourth of July temperatures that reached the 90s.