Starting just off the pole position in the second slot Chase Elliott knew that he most likely needed to win the Can-Am 500 at the ISM Raceway in Phoenix, AZ on Sunday, Nov 11 to claim his spot in the Championship Four of NASCAR’s Monster Energy Cup Series. After a drama filled week in NASCAR that saw Kevin Harvick docked 40 driver points and stripped of his win at Texas due to an illegally modified spoiler discovered in the post-race inspection there were suddenly three spots up for grabs in next week’s final race at Homestead-Miami. Seventeen points below the cut-line, and suddenly only 20 points behind Harvick, Elliott pushed his #9 NAPA Autoparts car to the limit, leading the race three times overall for a total of 16 laps and winning Stage 1 to put himself in excellent position at the half-way point.