Following a strong top 5 finish in Delaware on Saturday afternoon, Chase Elliott wrecked in the eighth lap of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at the Dover International Speedway, causing too much damage to the #9 Chevy for Elliott to continue the race.
After an initial collision between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Joey Logano during the first few minutes of the race, Driver Kyle Busch braked sharply, causing Elliott to collide with the back of his vehicle and knocking the Dawsonville driver out of the race. Busch was able to continue the race.
On Saturday, Elliott began the race in the pole position, holding the lead until the competition caution at lap 28. A slow trip to pit road put Elliott in 11th place once the race restarted.
Contact between Elliott and driver Clint Bowyer started to slow Elliott down. The crew told him that they did not see any smoke coming from the car, but Elliott said he could feel it in the car, keeping him outside of the top 10 drivers to finish stage 1, which was 70 laps long.
Work had to be done to start stage 2, with Elliott beginning in the 27th position. However, he was already back in 20th place 30 laps into stage 2 and around lap 120, commentator and NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. said that Elliott was the fastest car on the track at the time.
It showed. Elliott was up to 14th place in the next 15 laps and got as high as 4th place before he took a trip to pit road on lap 141.
Coming off of pit road, Elliott was back in 20th but with just 20 laps left to go in stage 2. Elliott was back in 13th place and gained one extra point by moving to 10th by the end of stage 2. SaturdayElliott.jpg
After moving up a spot coming off pit road at the end of stage 2, Elliott rose to seventh place with 70 laps left on the ‘Monster Mile’ track.
Elliott stayed steady in that position and after two racers pitted who were ahead of Elliott, he stayed in fifth until the end of the race.
Elliott had a new Mountain Dew paint scheme for Saturday’s race.
The race finished with Elliott still in fourth place.
Elliott has already secured a spot in the playoffs this season with two wins during the regular season and a total of sixteen playoff points.
The final regular-season race, the Coke Zero Sugar 400, will be at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, Aug. 30, starting at 7:30 p.m.