In his fifth start of the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star race, Dawsonville native Chase Elliott flew past the competition on Wednesday night to win big in Bristol, Tenn.
With his victory tonight, Elliott has won the second ever All-Star race not hosted at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. In 1986 the race was held at the Atlanta Motor Speedway and won by Elliott’s father, Bill Elliott.
The father-son duo now join the Earnhardt’s, Dale and Junior, as the only two pairs to ever win an All-Star race.
“I’m probably not gonna get to hear the siren tonight, but I hope somebody gets a good video of it,” Elliott said in a post race Zoom press conference. “Gordon at the Pool Room has done a great job of carrying on that tradition for me like he did with my dad and I can’t wait to get home and celebrate. It’s special to get this win.”
Elliott led the race for 60 laps and won both stage 2 and stage 3. He finished stage 1 in third place but only because he started in the 13th position. He recorded the fastest stage 1 lap as well.
Once the race started, Elliott continued to pass cars until he cracked the top five, but never took the lead in stage 1. Once he took the lead, he refused to give it up. At one point, Elliott led the second place car by as much as 0.92 seconds.
“This is one of those prestigious events that the cup series only has,” Elliott said. “There’s a lot of hype in it. You have to race your way into and luckily, we’ve raced our way into this for life.”
With the victory, Elliott walked away with a grand prize of $1 million. When asked how he would spend the bounty, he joked that he planned to back several trucks filled with Mountain Dew into friend and fellow Cup Series Driver Ryan Blaney’s driveway.
Elliott will likely bring this momentum forward into the weekend as NASCAR returns to regular season races.
After making his way into second place several weeks ago, Elliott fell to back to 4th place after last Sunday’s race, falling behind Blaney, Brad Keselowski and season leader Kevin Harvick.
He and other NASCAR Cup Series drivers will head to the Texas Motor Speedway for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 400 Sunday afternoon.