TALLADEGA, Ala. – Thirty-two years after his father Bill Elliott won his second and final race at Talladega Superspeedway, Chase Elliott added his name to the Alabama track’s history book by topping Sunday’s GEICO 500.
The younger Elliott gave both Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports their first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win of the season after a furious four-lap scramble to the finish, darting to the inside of late leader Joey Logano and then defending from there as teammate Alex Bowman gave chase.
Elliott’s win was ensured after a caution flag, brought out by a hard crash involving Jeffrey Earnhardt and Kyle Larson that sent Larson flipping down the backstretch, froze the field with a half-lap to go.
From there, the 23-year-old cruised home to his fourth Cup Series victory and first at Talladega.
Elliott was quick to note that his manufacturer stablemates were critical to his success, as a group of four Chevrolet drivers – Elliott, Bowman, Ryan Preece and Daniel Hemric – found one another following the final restart and got together in formation on the bottom of the race track.
That move paid off when Logano, who led the field on the final restart at lap 185, went up high to block a run from Kurt Busch and got shuffled out when the rest of the Bowtie Brigade rolled past down low.
It was proof of an “all-in” strategy by the Chevrolet drivers to get one of their own to victory lane, and it worked to perfection.
“What a day this was,” said Elliott, who led a race-high 44 laps. “I have to give a huge thanks to all of our partners, my team, Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet. There was a lot of teamwork that went into today. It was huge. We just had a plan and executed it really well. Obviously, it could’ve gone both ways, but fortunately everybody stayed together and we stayed the course as a group.
“Having some help on that last lap with a caution never hurts, either.”
Sunday’s win also came with a massive reaction from the assembled crowd as Elliott celebrated at the start/finish line after the race, something that wasn’t lost on the Dawsonville, Ga. young gun.
“Man, do I appreciate all the support,” said Elliott. “This is close to home for me and it does feel a little bit like a home race. It’s certainly very special to win here at Talladega and glad we could do it today.”
Bowman came home second, his best-career Cup Series finish, but admitted that there were no team order in place if the lead pack had gotten to turn four under green flag on the final lap.
“There was no plan coming off of turn four, but unfortunately we didn’t get there before the caution came out,” Bowman noted. “It’s just a big testament to Chevrolet and everyone at Hendrick Motorsports, because they brought great race cars here. We had a great Nationwide Chevy from the time we unloaded. We showed a lot of speed, we all stuck to our plan and we executed very well.
“I wasn’t just going to let him win. I was going to try,” Bowman added. “I was pretty confident I could get to his quarter-panel through the tri-oval … and who knows who’s going to get to the line first at that point. I thought I could do it, but it depends on the car behind you and where he goes.
“It would’ve been fun to try, but I’m happy for Chase and glad to turn the season around a bit.”
Preece came home third and was the highest-finishing rookie for the second-straight superspeedway race, followed by Logano in fourth and Hemric in fifth.
Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Brendan Gaughan, Aric Almirola and Kyle Busch completed the top 10.
Polesitter Austin Dillon never led a lap and was never a factor in the battle for the win, finishing 14th.
Prior to the final restart, a vicious crash with seven laps to go forced an eight minute, 47 second red flag after Chris Buescher was hooked into the outside wall thanks to contact from Aric Almirola.
Buescher was then hammered by Matt DiBenedetto’s Toyota in an impact that ripped apart the front and back ends of both machines. Justin Haley and Martin Truex Jr. were also collected in the melee.
Despite the wild rides taken by many in the closing stages, all drivers involved were uninjured.
To view complete race results, advance to the next page.