NASCAR Cup Series: Chase Elliott earns first win at 2018 Go Bowling at The Glen

Chase Elliott earned his first victory of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season and his first career Cup Series victory by winning the Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott took the checkered flag in the 22nd race of the 36-race 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season, the Go Bowling at The Glen, at Watkins Glen International after the starting the race in third place. The win is his first of the season and the first of his Cup Series career.

Elliott won the 90-lap race around the eight-turn, 2.454-mile (3.949-kilometer) Watkins Glen International road course in Watkins Glen, New York in his #9 Chevrolet by 7.560 seconds over second place finisher Martin Truex Jr. of Furniture Row Racing, who was the highest finishing Toyota driver of the race in his #78 Toyota.

While Elliott’s winning margin over Truex Jr. was 7.560 seconds, the race was extremely close over the course of the last several laps. Elliott was able to keep the lead despite his mistakes, especially when he overdrove turn one on the race’s final lap, while Truex Jr. was unable to overcome his own mistakes before running out of fuel at the end of the race, allowing Elliott to win it by a sizable margin. The gap between the two drivers was under a half-second for the majority of the race’s final few laps.

Elliott’s first career victory is the first victory of the season for Hendrick Motorsports and their first since last year’s Brickyard 400 when Kasey Kahne took the checkered flag. A total of 37 races took place after that race before Elliott’s victory.

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Elliott win is also the second victory of the season for a Chevrolet driver, as no Chevrolet driver had won a race since Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon won the season opener, the Daytona 500, in his #3 Chevrolet. Elliott, just like his father Bill, finished in second place eight times before earning his first career Cup Series victory, which he did in his 99th career race.

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez and Erik Jones rounded out the top five in third, fourth and fifth place in their #18 Toyota, #19 Toyota and #20 Toyota, respectively. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kurt Busch was the highest finishing Ford driver of the race. He finished in ninth place in his #41 Ford.

The race featured a total of nine lead changes among five drivers. Aside of Elliott, who led laps more laps than anybody else in the field with 52 laps led, four other drivers led at least one lap of the race. Those four drivers were Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, race polesitter Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson. Truex Jr. won stage one and Elliott won stage two, giving him one stage win in each of the last three races.

The race also featured a total of four caution flag periods for 11 laps. Two of those caution flag periods took place as a result of the endings of stages one and two while the other two took place as a result of on-track incidents.

A total of 34 of the 37 drivers who started the race finished it. Of the 34 drivers who finished the race, an impressive total of 24 drivers finished it on the lead lap.

Here are the full race results of the 2018 Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International.

Be sure to tune in to NBC Sports Network at 2:30 p.m. ET next Sunday, August 12 for the live broadcast of the next NASCAR Cup Series race, the Consumers Energy 400, at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan.