While Joe Gibbs Racing dominated Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, it was Chase Elliott who walked away with the win.
Elliott scored his second victory of 2022, holding off Kurt Busch and Ryan Blaney in a four-lap dash to finish the Ally 400.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver led the last 39 laps after three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers – Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch – combined to lead 250 of the race’s 300 laps.
The sprint to the finish was a result of Josh Bilicki’s engine expiring with nine laps to go. Under the caution, Elliott stayed on the track while most of the leaders, including second-place Kyle Busch, elected to pit.
“I figured (the caution) was coming, but I was hoping not,” Elliott told NBC Sports on the frontstretch of the 1.33-mile track. “Ryan (Blaney) gave me a great shove (on the restart).. Appreciate him doing me a solid there and getting us out front. Just so proud of our team. We had kind of a setback there (pit penalty) about halfway and we were able to get the NAPA Chevy dialed back in and get back in the mix.
“It was a long day, fun day.”
Elliott’s win, the 15th of his NASCAR Cup career, came on a day that saw a total of three hours of delays due to lightning and rain. After going green at about 5:11 p.m. ET, the race concluded just before midnight.
“We’ve had a pretty rough month-and-a-half,” said Elliott, who had only one top-20 finish in the previous four races. “So nice to get back going in the right direction,” Elliott said. “We were able to work on (the car) a little bit after our penalty and got it going a little better. Just stuck with it.”
The victory makes Elliott the fifth driver to win multiple races this season. He joins Ross Chastain, William Byron, Hamlin and Logano. No one has more than two wins.
For Kurt Busch, it is his fifth top five of the season.
“I got soft on (Elliott),” he said. “I should have been throwing some fenders and moving some momentum around. I didn’t stick with our strength. We didn’t have many strengths tonight. We just executed really well. The restarts were so-so and long run speed was good. I just needed to stick with our strength and I messed up. I want to thank all my guys at 23XI. We have a great group of guys and girls. The way that we’re running, a second is cool, but we’re here for wins with the playoff situation. … I just hate it when we don’t get into victory lane and I was right there.”
The top five was completed by Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain.
Click here for the race results.
Finishing the top 10 was Hamlin, Austin Cindric, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick. After leading all but 50 laps, Hamlin was the finishing driver for JGR.
As a result of choosing to pit under the final caution, Kyle Busch finished 21st.
First Stage
The race’s first caution came on Lap 41 for debris off the No. 77 of Bilicki.
At the time, pole-sitter Hamlin has about a four-second lead over Daniel Suarez. Ross Chastain was third, Christopher Bell fourth and Kyle Larson in fifth.
Quickly after the caution came out, the race was put under a red flag due to a lightning strike in the area. The lighting hold, initiated when there’s lighting with eight miles of a track, wound up lasting an hour.
In the pits after the red flag was lifted, Hamlin beat Suarez off pit road. Chastain had to pit a second time to properly secure his right-rear tire.
The race went back to green on Lap 48 at 6:44 p.m. ET.
Two Hendrick Motorsports car experienced problems within moments of each other.
First, William Byron suffered a problem in the steering on his No. 24 Chevrolet, forcing him to go to the garage for repairs. He’d eventually return and finish 38 laps down.
Then on Lap 50, Alex Bowman spun and backed his No. 48 Chevy into the outside wall in Turn 2 after Corey LaJoie got into him from behind. Bowman was eliminated from the race.
The restart has not been kind to Team Hendrick.
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) June 26, 2022
William Byron heads to the garage and Alex Bowman spins and hits the wall hard.
📺: @NBC & @peacockTV #NASHCAR pic.twitter.com/FaFbv7my1N
“It’s really cool. Corey LaJoie is a really good driver,” Bowman sarcastically said over his team radio.
LaJoie was quick to admit fault.
“Tell him I’m sorry,” LaJoie told his team. ”I didn’t mean to do that. I thought he was committed to the second lane.”
The second caution for an incident came on Lap 61 when Chase Briscoe and Ty Dillon wrecked together in Turn 2.
The incident started when Chastain tried to pass Briscoe on the inside entering the turn. Briscoe blocked him down to the line, he then washed up the track into Dillon, causing them both to spin.
On the Lap 66 restart, Truex flew by Hamlin in Turn 2 to take the lead for the first time.
Three laps later, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Busch both cracked the top 10 after making their way through the field from the back. Busch had started 36th after the No. 18 team made repairs to his No. 18 Toyota following a wreck in qualifying on Saturday.
Chastain, recovering from his second pit stop under caution, was in 15th by Lap 75
Hamlin began challenging Truex for the lead with about seven laps left in the first stage, but Truex managed to hold him off, beating Hamlin to the line by a tenth of a second.
The top 10 after 90 laps: Truex, Hamlin, Blaney, Bell, Harvick, Larson, Wallace, Elliott, Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch.
Second Stage
In the pits, Logano took two tires and was the first off pit road, as Hamlin lost five spots. On the Lap 97 restart, Logano failed to prevent Truex from taking the lead and Blaney moving into second.
The top five would remain largely unchanged until the next caution on Lap 118 for light rain in the area. Truex kept the lead over Blaney through pit stops. Wallace, who left the pits in seventh, had to pit a second time for a loose left-rear wheel. It was yet another in a series of examples where a mistake on pit road derailed a good run for Wallace.
After the second pit stop, Wallace was one lap down. He would eventually finish 12th.
On the following restart, Blaney nearly got by Truex for the lead on Lap 127. The attempt slowed both of them enough for Hamlin to take advantage and get by.
Hamlin barely led at the start-finish line after Truex used a crossover to get on his inside.
The two teammates would be side-by side for the next two laps as Kyle Busch closed in from third. Hamlin finally cleared Truex on Lap 132. Six laps later, the red flag returned for yet another lighting strike.
During the break it began raining, resulting in the red flag not being be lifted until just after 10 p.m. ET.
After taking time to dry off pit road and teams pitting, the race went back to green on Lap 151, the halfway mark of the race, making it official.
Like the previous restart, Hamlin and Truex remained side-by-side for multiple laps before Hamlin took the lead on Lap 153. Truex would get back to Hamlin with 17 laps left in the stage, diving to his inside but failing to make the pass. Two laps later, Truex successfully pass Hamlin on the outside in Turn 2
Hamlin would keep him within range, as Truex held on to win Stage 2 by three tenths of a second.
The top 10 after 185 Laps: Truex, Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch, Larson, Chastain, Harvick, Blaney and McDowell.
Truex was the first to exit the pits, beating Kyle Busch, Elliott and Chastain and Hamlin dropped to eighth. Hamlin’s pit stop lasted 13 seconds after a problem changing the right-front tire. Kyle Busch would take the lead for the first time on Lap 194, shortly after the restart.
With 95 laps to go, Blaney would bring out the caution when his No. 12 Ford got loose exiting Turn 4, tagged the outside wall and came down the track, narrowly avoiding hitting his teammate Austin Cindric.
“Spun out trying too hard,” Blaney said. “(crew chief) Jonathan (Hassler) made a good call to stay out the last stop. Why not? Running ninth and was able to run third, so that was a good call by him. Overall, I wish it was in the hot and slick of the day because I thought we were a little bit more competitive, but not a bad finish.”
Kyle Busch and 11 others cars stayed out of the pits during the caution. The race resumed with 91 laps to go. Busch would keep the lead until Elliott tracked him down and passed Busch with 55 laps to go. Truex quickly took second from Busch.
The next time around both Truex and Kyle Busch made pit stops to start the first green flag cycle of the race. Elliott pit with 52 laps to go. When he returned to the track, he was behind Busch.
🎶 You picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel. 🎶
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) June 27, 2022
Chris Buescher loses a wheel, bringing out the yellow late at @NashvilleSuperS! #NASHCAR
📺 : @USA_Network and @PeacockTV pic.twitter.com/x3dqyJcKz7
Green flag stops were nearing their conclusion when the right-rear wheel came off Chris Buescher’s No. 17 Ford, resulting in a caution. Kurt Busch was scored as the leader over Blaney, Logano, Austin Dillon, McDowell and Keselowski. Kyle Busch was in 14th.
Wallace, Larson and AJ Allmendinger were among the drivers caught a lap down because of the timing of the caution. After the remaining cars pit, Kyle Busch was once again the leader as the race restarted with 39 laps to go. Kurt Busch, who was first off pit road, restarted seventh.