NASCAR Cup Series: Chase Elliott ends drought at opportune time

Chase Elliott ended a top 10 drought of over two months, and he could not have done so at a more opportune time in the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Entering Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott had not finished a NASCAR Cup Series race in the top 10 in more than two months.

Elliott finished in fourth place in the race at Pocono Raceway on Sunday, June 2. Since then, he had recorded seven finishes of 11th or worse, and his average finishing position was an abysmal 26.43.

A few of his poor results were through self-induced errors, but a majority of them came about due to factors that were out of his control.

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Mechanical issues took him out of contention in the races at Sonoma Raceway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway while a pit road air hose issue took him out of contention in the race at Chicagoland Speedway his involvement in the “Big One” took him out of contention in the race at Daytona International Speedway. A flat tire took him out of contention in the second race at Pocono Raceway.

He was slated for top three finishes in the races at Sonoma and Chicagoland, a top five finish in the race at Daytona and top 10 finishes in the races at New Hampshire and Pocono. He finished in 37th, 11th, 35th, 29th and 38th place, respectively.

But the eight-turn, 2.454-mile (3.949-kilometer) Watkins Glen International road course in Watkins Glen, New York is a special place for Elliott, who secured the first victory of his Cup Series career in thrilling fashion over Martin Truex Jr. at the track on Sunday, August 5, 2018 in what was his 99th start.

Elliott entered this 90-lap race, which marked the 135th start of his Cup Series career, coming off the first last place finish of his career at Pocono Raceway.

To make matters worse and to illustrate just how cold he was entering this race, this last place finish came at the track of his most recent top 10 finish. He was the first car to crash due to a flat tire despite the fact that he worked his way up from starting in the back of the field in a backup car to sixth place.

The 23-year-old Dawsonville, Georgia native went on to take the pole position for the Go Bowling at The Glen, but this was not particularly a good sign. In six previous pole position starts, Elliott had never finished higher than fifth place, and only one driver had won a Cup Series race after starting from the pole position in the last 38 races going back to last July.

Additionally, no polesitter had won at Watkins Glen International since the 2008 season when Kyle Busch started from the pole position and led 52 of the race’s 90 laps en route to reaching victory lane.

But Elliott, who entered this race as a four-time Cup Series race winner, dominated it from start to finish, winning both stage one and stage two en route to winning the race, and in true 2018 fashion, he held off Truex Jr. after an intense battle for much of the race’s third and final stage to do it.

He led 80 of the race’s 90 laps, the second highest laps led total in 37 Cup Series races at the track. Tony Stewart led an all-time record 83 of the race’s 92 laps en route to winning after starting the race from the pole position in the 2005 season.

Only two Cup Series races at the track have ever featured fewer than five lead changes, which is how many this one featured. Those races took place in the 1957 season and the 1965 season and were won by Buck Baker with zero lead changes and Marvin Panch with three, respectively. Elliott himself was never physically passed for the lead on the race track.

Elliott made the remark that he never would have thought he’d consider a track in New York “home”, but after winning this race for the second consecutive season and dominating it once again after leading 52 of 90 laps there last year, that’s how he felt.

And in making this track the first track at which he has won two races as well as the track at which he ended the most miserable seven-race stretch of his Cup Series career, it probably felt extra special.

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Searching for his first top 10 finish and some kind of shot in the arm following a disastrous span of two-plus months, Chase Elliott came through with his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory at Watkins Glen International. This victory could not have come at a better time, at a better track and in a better form.

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