NASCAR Watkins Glen recap: Chase Elliott finally grabs first career Cup Series win
By Nick Tylwalk
Chase Elliott ended a long streak of personal and team futility by holding off a champion to earn a breakthrough victory at The Glen.
For so long, the question for Chase Elliott has been simple: When? When would the super popular son of Bill Elliott truly begin to author his own NASCAR Cup Series story and finally get a win that had eluded him for 98 previous starts. Watkins Glen International probably wouldn’t have been the place he’d tell you it would finally come, especially if you added the stipulation that he’d have to hold off a hard-charging Martin Truex Jr. to get it.
The defending race winner and reigning Cup Series champion made it a battle over the final laps, including a heart-stopping Turn 1 on the final lap that saw both drivers skid off their lines. In the end, however, even while running on fumes, Elliott prevailed and captured a victory he, his team and his legion of fans won’t likely forget.
That Elliott would compete for the victory wasn’t a complete surprise, despite the 36-race winless streak Hendrick Motorsports carried into Sunday. He qualified third, one spot ahead of Truex in what would end up as foreshadowing.
Early on, it appeared a different member of this year’s Big 3, Kyle Busch, had the car to beat. However, Elliott was able to pass and pull away from Busch’s No. 18 Toyota during Stage 2, something that has rarely happened this season.
Busch looked like he had the better car in the final stage, but disaster struck him on what turned out to be his final pit stop, when an issue with the fuel seal on his Toyota meant plenty of the gas intended to see him through to the finish didn’t get in the car. He had to come back into the pits, giving up a ton of track position, and never got the caution he needed to bunch the field back up and take another shot at a victory.
While Busch stewed, Elliott pulled away from everyone but Truex. The 78 was closer than a second back for much of the time he was chasing Elliott — no pun intended — but wasn’t in position to take advantage of Elliott’s one stumble, and he had fuel problems of his own to boot.
“You know, he missed Turn 1 on the final lap, but I missed the inner loop on the final lap and lost five car lengths to him, so when he made that mistake in 1, I was too far back to capitalize,” Truex said in the media center after finishing second. “Like I said on TV, we ran out of gas anyway coming off of Turn 5 that last lap, so it was really all a moot point. He was going to win regardless.
“Congrats to him on his first win. That’s a big deal for those guys, and they’ve been so close. Chase did a great job, and they earned it, so congrats to them.”
Amazingly, Elliott’s triumph came after eight runner-up Cup Series finishes, the same number his Hall of Fame dad needed to endure before he finally broke through. Now that The Question has finally been answered, Elliott will be able to relax and focus on improving his playoff position. Not bad at all for a drive around the tricky turns of Watkins Glen.
Next. Go Bowling at The Glen highlights, stage results. dark
2018 Go Bowling at The Glen finishing order from Watkins Glen
- Chase Elliott
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Kyle Busch
- Daniel Suarez
- Erik Jones
- Kyle Larson
- Jamie McMurray
- William Byron
- Kurt Busch
- Kevin Harvick
- Clint Bowyer
- Ryan Blaney
- Denny Hamlin
- Alex Bowman
- AJ Allmendinger
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Brad Keselowski
- Michael McDowell
- Ryan Newman
- Chris Buescher
- Kasey Kahne
- Aric Almirola
- Ty Dillon
- Parker Kligerman
- Bubba Wallace
- David Ragan
- Austin Dillon
- Paul Menard
- Matt Kenseth
- Jimmie Johnson
- Landon Cassill
- Ross Chastain
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Cole Whitt
- Spencer Gallagher
- Josh Bilicki
- Joey Logano