ELLIOTT CRUISES IN DOVER AFTER DELAY
Chase Elliott had a frontrow seat for the Hendrick Motorsports trophy celebrations and photo shoots and all the kitschy social media posts created as one by one — and as his three teammates won, and won and won again — they all brought home checkered f lags.
Elliott rarely needs a motivational nudge to park his Chevy in victory lane, so while he felt happy for the drivers, he didn’t necessarily use their successes as a means to create artificial fire to try to match them.
“My drive to win and my job to do my job to the best of my ability doesn’t change whether we are struggling, whether are we doing very good, whether I’m in a contract year or not, whether my teammates have won and I haven’t,” Elliott said.
He drove to the best of his ability again Monday at Dover Motor Speedway and earned his first victory of the season, making Hendrick Motorsports drivers 4 for 4 in the win column this season. It’s barely May and Elliott, Kyle Larson, William Byron and Alex Bowman already are locked into
the playoffs.
The summer run will be a tuneup for the 10-race shootout.
There’s a new car this season in NASCAR — and the same old results for Hendrick at Dover.
Elliott snapped a 26-race winless streak when the 2020 NASCAR champion led the final 53 laps to win his 14th career Cup race. Elliott, who leads the points standings, hopped on the window ledge of
his No. 9 Chevrolet and pointed in appreciation toward a solid crowd for a weekday race. The finish was delayed a day because of rain.
Grosjean not making friends
The honeymoon is over for Romain Grosjean, and if Barber Motorsports Park had hosted a boxing match Sunday, then Graham Rahal
would have at least bloodied IndyCar’s darling.
The two were battling for seventh and eighth in a race won by and Rahal felt he gave Grosjean enough room for a fair race for position. Instead, he alleged Grosjean intentionally hit him and then took it a step further in referencing Grosjean’s time in F1.
“Another driver in the series told me ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ and that’s kind of been his reputation his whole career in Europe,” Rahal said. “We’re learning his reputation quickly here.”
Grosjean acknowledged he had contact with Rahal but didn’t seem concerned.
“It’s good racing I guess, it’s IndyCar. It’s wheel-to-wheel racing,” he said, denying Rahal’s claim that Grosjean deliberately hit him. “I think it’s just hard racing.”
Notable
Volkswagen’s sports-car brand Porsche is close to a deal to enter Formula 1 while Audi’s separate push is less advanced for now. Porsche’s plans are “quite concrete,” VW Chief Executive Officer Herbert Diess said. The maker of the 911 sports car has reportedly been in talks with Red Bull Racing about a partnership.