Congratulations to Chase Elliott, who finally got his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win today at Watkins Glen... and his win was nothing short of exciting! On a lap 59 restart (there are only 90 laps at Watkins Glen), Chase was out ahead of the field while Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch battled it out for second. Truex Jr. finally cleared Kurt Busch and then hunted down and stalked Chase Elliott for the remainder of the race. Once Truex Jr. caught up to Elliott, he stayed pretty close behind, but was never able to get close enough to make the pass. If you missed it, you missed some VERY exciting racing! These two put on one heck of a show!
On the final lap, Chase wheel hopped on the first turn allowing Truex Jr. to close up tight, but a few turns later, Martin Truex Jr. ran out of gas. Chase crossed the start/finish line, got his first win, the 250th win for Hendrick Motorsports, and the first win for Hendrick since last August when Kasey Kahne won at the Brickyeard. Elliott is credited with winning by just over 7.5 seconds due to Truex Jr. running out of gas on the last lap. Clearly those two drivers were pushing their cars to the max. When Elliott went to do his first winner's burnout, he, too ran out of gas, and teammate Jimmie Johnson pushed him to the front stretch.
Kyle Busch made a great recovery to third after a fuel issue on what would've been his final pit stop caused him to stop again for more fuel. Kyle's teammates Daniel Suarez and Erik Jones were fourth and fifth, respectively. Kyle Larson, Jamie McMurray, William Byron, Kurth Busch, and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top 10.
Next week's race will be at Michigan.
PS... how cute is this picture of Chase and his dad Bill Elliott at Watkins Glen 20 years ago?!