NASCAR: Chase Elliott defeats Kyle Busch to claim bounty
By Asher Fair
Chase Elliott has beaten Kyle Busch in the NASCAR Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway to win the $100,000 bounty.
That didn’t take long — aside of the 95 days between NASCAR Truck Series races, that is.
In the first race since Cup Series driver Kevin Harvick and Truck Series title sponsor Gander RV & Outdoors CEO Marcus Lemonis placed a combined $100,000 bounty on Kyle Busch for any full-time Cup Series driver who could beat Kyle Busch, the bounty has been claimed.
Chase Elliott, driving the #24 Chevrolet for GMS Racing, held off Busch’s #51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota by 0.627 seconds to win the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
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Elliott had not competed in a Truck Series race winning the race at Martinsville Speedway in April of 2017 driving for GMS Racing. His victory in this evening’s 134-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval in Concord, North Carolina is the third of his Truck Series career, which now includes 13 starts.
As for Busch, he entered this race on a seven-race Truck Series winning streak going back to July of 2018 at Pocono Raceway. He won all five of his starts last season, and he also won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway earlier this season.
He entered this race on a 10-race streak of top two finishes, effectively meaning that to claim the bounty, it would take a victory.
That’s what it took, as that top two streak is now at 11.
The $100,000 that Elliott won by beating Busch is set to go to a COVID-19 relief effort of his choice.
Elliott took a Kyle Busch bow to celebrate the victory.
— Chase Elliott (@chaseelliott) May 27, 2020
The other full-time Cup Series drivers who competed in this race with a chance to claim the $100,000 bounty were John Hunter Nemechek and Brennan Poole. Nemechek finished in sixth place driving the #8 Ford for NEMCO Motorsports while Poole finished in 38th driving the #30 Toyota for On Point Motorsports.
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The next race on the 2020 NASCAR Truck Series schedule is the Vet Tix/Camping World 200, which is scheduled to take place on Saturday, June 6 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This race is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 1:00 p.m.. ET.