Chase Elliott held off a charging Martin Truex Jr. to win at Watkins Glen, capturing his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in his young career.
Elliott, the son of Hall of Fame driver Bill Elliott, has been on the main NASCAR series since 2016, but had been unable to win a race until Sunday’s road course competition.
Truex Runs Out of Gas on Final Lap
While Elliott ultimately won the race by more than 7.5 seconds, it wasn’t clear until well into the final lap that he would be able to hold off Truex, who was right on his tail for much of the final 32 laps.
That extended into the final lap, where a wide first turn gave Truex the opportunity to get within a car length of Elliott. But there would be no more mistakes from the leader, and when Truex ran out of fuel with two turns to go, Elliott was able to coast home. The winner was running on fumes as well: after the finish, he found himself off of fuel too, and couldn’t even make it to victory lane without some pushing from Jimmie Johnson’s car.
“Holy cow, I don’t know what to say,” Elliott said of his first win. “Working on three years, I hadn’t won one. I came here with a great opportunity today, and I was able to get it done.”
While Elliott endured a surprising and frustrating losing streak, the 99 starts it took him to win his first race was actually shorter than what his father went through. Bill Elliott took 124 starts to score his first victory, which came at Riverside in 1983.
Truex, who finished second, regretted some of his errors in the final laps, but acknowledged that there was probably nothing he could have done to win the race.
“He missed Turn 1 on the final lap, but I missed the inner loop on the [next-to-last] lap and lost five car length to him, so when he made that mistake in 1, I was too far back to capitalize,” Truex said after the race. “We ran out of gas anyway coming off of Turn 5 that last lap, so it was really all a moot point. He was going to win regardless.”
Elliott Clinches Playoff Spot
The victory was also the 250th all time for Hendrick Motorsports, which had been on a 37-race losing streak.
Driver standings leader Kyle Busch had another strong performance to finish in third place, with Daniel Suarez and Erik Jones rounding out the top five. Kevin Harvick – who along with Truex and Busch has been part of the dominant “Big Three” in NASCAR this season – finished in 10th place.
The win clinched a playoff position for Elliott, as the dominance of the top three drivers has already ensured that anyone who wins at least one race will make the postseason.
Elliott is not one of the favorites to win the NASCAR Cup Series championship this season, but the win has improved his odds, with Bet365 listing him as a 12/1 pick to win the year-end title. Harvick (11/4) and Truex (11/4) remain the championship favorites, just ahead of Busch (3/1).
