NASCAR Winner Spotlight: Congratulations, Chase Elliott!
By Mark Kristl
Chase Elliott won the 2018 Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International. The win is his first career NASCAR Cup Series win.
Congratulations, Chase Elliott! When he crossed the finish line at Watkins Glen International, he earned his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory. This win is also the first win for Hendrick Motorsports in the 2018 Cup Series season. For Chevrolet, it is their second win of the season, as Austin Dillon won the Daytona 500 back in mid-February.
After leading 52 laps of the 90-lap race, Chase Elliott celebrated in victory lane. He now sits is 11th place in the championship standings. More importantly, his win also clinched him a Cup Series playoff berth, and he now sits in fifth in the playoff standings with eight playoff points. His victory also adds him to a unique club in NASCAR. With his win at Watkins Glen, he became the 31st driver to win in all three of NASCAR’s major series.
Elliott has steadily ascended up the NASCAR ladder. He debuted in the Truck Series at Martinsville Speedway on April 6, 2013. He finished in sixth place in that race. Later that season, he won his first race, capturing that victory on September 1, 2013 driving the #94 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada.
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The 2014 season for Elliott was his first full-time season in NASCAR. He drove the #9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet and quickly grabbed more headlines.
The sixth race of the season was the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. With 16 laps to go, he took the lead away from Kevin Harvick and earned his first career Xfinity Series win.
Elliott continued to impress in 2014. He nabbed two more victories at Darlington Raceway and Chicagoland Speedway. For a rookie in the Xfinity Series, three wins is quite an accomplishment. The best part of his season occurred at the penultimate race of the season at ISM Raceway. With a fifth place finish in that race, he clinched the 2014 Xfinity Series championship.
How does a driver follow up an Xfinity Series championship in his rookie season? Elliott did so by making his Cup Series debut in 2015 at Martinsville Speedway driving the #25 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
Elliott competed in five Cup Series races in 2015, and he recorded a top finish of 16th place at Richmond Raceway. Before the season began, Hendrick Motorsports announced that he would replace Jeff Gordon as the driver of #24 Chevrolet in the 2016 Cup Series season.
In his second full-time season as driver of #9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, Chase Elliott finished the 2015 Xfinity Series season in second place in the championship standings. While he showed lots of potential in the Cup Series in both the 2016 and 2017 seasons and even recorded a fifth place finish in the standings in 2017, he had never reached victory lane in a points-paying Cup Series race.
Elliott’s victory in the 2018 Go Bowling at the Glen is his first NASCAR victory since he won the 2017 Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville Speedway driving the #23 GMS Racing Chevrolet in the Truck Series last April.
In summation, Chase Elliott is a winner. He has won in all three of NASCAR’s major series, and he continues to improve. Just like they are for Kyle Larson, the expectations are high for Elliott. With his first career Cup Series victory, he is now poised to contend for the 2018 Cup Series title. At only 22 years old, he has already accomplished a great deal in NASCAR, and his current path signals that he can achieve greatness.
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Chase Elliott will be looking for his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory at Michigan International Speedway this Sunday, August 12. There, he and the rest of the Cup Series drivers will race in the Consumers Energy 400. There are only four races remaining in the 2018 regular season, so be sure to tune in on NBC Sports Network for the live broadcast of this 200-lap race at 2:30 p.m. ET.