NASCAR Cup Series fortune finally smiled upon Chase Elliott, who took home the Alsco Uniforms 500 on Thursday night.
Both Lady Fortune and Mother Nature seemed to hold a grudge against Chase Elliott winning a 2020 NASCAR Cup Series race. Elliott was able to finally defy them both on Thursday night.
The No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet led the final 27 laps of the Alsco Uniforms 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, winning the premier Cup Series’ fourth event since returning from the COVID-19-induced pause. It’s the seventh win of Elliott’s Cup career and his first of the 2020 campaign. Elliott’s win in the 208-lap, 500-kilometer event came after a rain delay shortly after the race’s 30th lap. Rain was also responsible for the Thursday night staging, as storms from Tropical Depression Bertha washed out the originally Wednesday scheduling.
“We battled hard and finally got our car good enough there at the end,” Elliott said in a postrace Zoom conference call. “I’m just excited that we’ve been performing well, and ultimately I want to just have a shot to win each and every week.  That’s our goal as a team.  Whether we do or not is one thing, but to just have a chance to be in position is the goal, so we need to stay after that goal.”
Bad luck defined Elliott’s endeavors since the circuit rebooted from its hiatus. His healthy lead on the penultimate lap of Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 (also at Charlotte) evaporated with a late caution and a costly decision to pit prior to the two-lap overtime relegated him to a third-place finish. That followed an incident at Darlington Raceway on May 21, when a second-place Elliott was bumped by Kyle Busch on the final green flag lap of the rain-shortened Toyota 500.
Elliott recovered with a win in a Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series on Tuesday night. But it didn’t alleviate the pain of Sunday’s misfortune.
“I don’t know that Tuesday made up for Sunday,” Elliott said. “It was certainly good. It never hurt anything to come over here, perform, and have a good run like that.  But it definitely didn’t fix it.  I think we were hungry and wanted to get back and try again.”
Elliott finally began to make things right on Thursday.
The No. 9 car ran toward the front for a good portion of the evening, finishing in the top ten after each of the first two stages (won respectively by Joey Logano and Alex Bowman). Elliott and his team earned a victorious moment when the caution flag came out with 53 laps to go after Timmy Hill’s No. 66 Toyota sustained damage.
Crew chief Alan Gustafson took a brunt of criticism for calling Elliott to pit lane during Sunday’s last proceedings. But Elliott would praise Gustafson and the No. 9 team’s adjustments in their final pit stop. Harvick opened up a large lead at the onset of the final stanza but Elliott’s newly tweaked Camaro was able to chase the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford down and make the pass.
“I’m not sure that we had it exactly perfect, but the guys did a great job making good adjustments and good pit stops there to put us in a position,” Elliott said. “I think the race going long played into our favor as compared to what Kevin had to work with.”
Elliott further came to Gustafson’s defense, defending his much-criticized suggestion to pit on Sunday. Gustafson has been employed with Hendrick Motorsports since 2000 and has previously served as the crew chief for Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, and Jeff Gordon.
“I feel like at the end of the day, he has to make decisions on the spot. I feel like we were in a lose-lose position there on Sunday, so it’s not his fault that the caution came out with two laps to go, and when you’re in a position like that you have to make a decision and stick with it. I’m not going to question him.”
“I don’t fault him. It’s not his fault; it’s just one of those things where you’ve got to make a gut call and go with it, and heck, we drove back to third.  I just don’t see how you can look back at that and say he did something wrong because that position is a super hard one to be in.”
Denny Hamlin would pass Ryan Blaney for the runner-up spot on the penultimate lap. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. came home fourth, while Kurt Busch rounded out the top five.
The NASCAR Cup Series will return to action on Sunday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Supermarket Heroes 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, Fox).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEWEihwa6Xw
Race Notes
- Elliott becomes the first driver to win a race on both Charlotte’s oval and Roval courses (the latter being part-oval and part-road course). The series will return to the Roval this fall in the midst of the postseason.
- Harvick’s car faded over the final laps, but he managed to hold on for a 10th-place finish. The Cup Series points leader has now earned 13 consecutive top-ten finishes. Harvick led the most laps on Thursday with 63.
- Bowman’s win in the second stage was his series-best fourth this season. However, his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet hit the wall while running second behind Harvick early in the final stage. Bowman finished 31st, two laps down.
- A good run for Bubba Wallace, featuring a 10th-place run at the end of stage two, ended in 37th after his No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet suffered mechanical issues at the onset of the final stage.
- Rick Ware Racing teammates Garrett Smithley and Joey Gase were involved in a wreck during the very first lap. Smithley’s No. 51 failed to complete a lap, while the resulting damage limited Gase to only eight circuits before his No. 53 was retired.
- Coca-Cola 600 winner Brad Keselowski sustained damage in an incident with Matt Kenseth shortly before the weather delay, but rallied back to finish eighth.
- Early in the second stage, Kyle Busch (winner of Monday’s Xfinity Series event at Charlotte) had a tire go down during the second stage after making contact with Aric Almirola. Busch ended the evening in 29th, one lap down.
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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags