Sunday July 4, 2021 by Julie Bouchard
Chase Elliott, the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion, reaffirmed his mastery of the road circuits this Sunday, winning the contested race at the Road America track in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. On this course of more than 4 miles where the Cup series returned for the first time since 1956 (victory of Tim Flock), the driver of the Chevrolet No.9 of Hendrick Motorsports occupied the lead of the race for no less than 24 of the 62 laps.
Few neutralizations slowed down this race, which lasted 2h54 minutes and it was with a lead of 5.705 seconds that Chase Elliott crossed the finish line. This is his second victory of the season after another road circuit (Austin in May) and the 13th of his career in the Cup series. This is also his sixth victory in the last eight races held on Cup Series road circuits.
“I never felt like I had a very good pace yesterday in qualifying,” said Elliott, who started from 34th position on the starting grid before starting an impressive comeback in second. half test today. “For some reason, after about half of the race I started to feel more comfortable with the car, to find the right pace. I was then able to really implement the strategy I wanted, ”he added.
Teammates in Joe Gibbs racing (Toyota), Christopher Bell and Kyle Busch took the second and third final positions, but at a good distance. The gaps at the finish show that it was anything but a tight peloton on the last laps: Kyle Busch finished 3rd 8.9 seconds behind the winner, while his brother Kurt (Chevrolet / Chip Ganassi Racing) was 4th at 15, 9 seconds. He was ahead of a third Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Denny Hamlin, 16.4 seconds behind Elliott.
Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, who won the second segment, Martin Truex Jr and point guard Matt DiBenedetto on the second raise, completed the first 10 round. For the full ranking, click here.
It was William Byron who took pole position in qualifying in the morning, before leading the first 15 laps and winning the first segment with his Chevrolet from Hendrick Motorsports. He was, however, relegated to 33rd final position after missing a pass on Turn 5 and being off-track, on 49th of 62 laps.
The next event in the NASCAR Cup Series will take place at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It will be back on a 1.5 mile oval track for NASCAR Star Series competitors … And for the recap of this Sunday’s race, see the video below.
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