Chase Elliott Rebounds from 34th to Win at Road America

For the first time in 65 years, the NASCAR Cup Series returned to the beloved 4-mile track of Road America near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. NASCAR shook-up the schedule even further by moving the traditional 4th of July race at Daytona International Speedway to accomodate the new road course.

LAP 1: Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Willian Byron and Kyle Larson, made up the front row and led the field to green flag. Byron pulled ahead to secure the lead, but was under pressure from Larson and 3rd-place of AJ Allmendinger.

CAUTION – LAP 4: The #99 of Daniel Suarez stopped on track in Turn 6 with a possible transmission issue. Suarez had to be pushed back to the garage, where his team tried to make repairs with the hopes of rejoining the race.

CAUTION – LAP 11: The yellow came out just before the end of the stage when the left-front tire on the #78 of Kyle Tilley went down and sent him into the gravel trap.

STAGE 1 END – LAP 14: The stage ended under caution, which allowed William Byron to pick up the stage win and an additional playoff point. AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, and Ross Chastain rounded out the top 5 at the end of the segment. Chase Elliott, who stared the race 34th, finished the stage in 10th place.

Most teams pitted during the break, with the excetion of those that got serviced during the previous caution. This shook-up the field and put Martin Truex Jr in the lead for the restart.

LAP 17: On the restart, Austin Cindric and Matt Dibenedetto both out-braked Truex in Turn 1 to steal the lead. The pair then battled for most of the stage, putting on an impressive show of out-braking, cross overs, and side-by-side racing.

LAP 26: Just prior to the stage end, multiple cars, including the leaders, came to pitroad under green for 4 tires and fuel. This put the #8 of Tyler Reddick in the top spot.

STAGE 2 END – LAP 28: Redick held on to win the stage and pick up the extra playoff point. Behind him, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson, and Kurt Busch completed the Top 5. The rest of the field pittted during the break, which cycled the front row to Matt DiBenedetto and Chase Elliott to start the final stage.

CAUTION – LAP 42: The #38 of Anthony Alfredo brought out the caution when he got stuck in the gravel trap and had to be towed out. The field made their final pit stops during the yellow and it was Kyle Busch that won the race off pit road.

LAP 45: Chase Elliott powered around the outside of Busch to make the pass and take the lead away.

CHECKERED FLAG – LAP 62: Chase Elliott crossed the line 5.5-seconds ahead of Christopher Bell to claim his 2nd win of the season. This was Elliott’s 7th road course winin his career.

RESULTS:

1. Chase Elliott
2. Christopher Bell
3. Kyle Busch
4. Kurt Busch
5. Denny Hamlin
6. Chase Briscoe
7. Ross Chastain
8. Tyler Reddick
9. Martin Truex Jr
10. Matt DiBenedetto
11. Austin Dillon
12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
13. Brad Keselowski
14. Aric Almirola
15. Joey Logano
16. Kyle Larson
17. Cole Custer
18. Chris Buescher
19. Erik Jones
20. Ryan Blaney
21. Corey Lajoie
22. Alex Bowman
23. Josh Bilicki
24. Bubba Wallace
25. Justin Haley
26. Ty Dillon
27. Kevin Harvick
28. James Davison
29. AJ Allmendinger
30. Michael McDowell
31. Cody Ware
32. Ryan Newman
33. William Byron
34. Quin Houff
35. Kyle Tilley
36. Daniel Suarez
37. Anthony Alfredo
38. Austin Cindric
39. Ryan Eversley
40. Ryan Preece