Yahoo Finance Chase Elliott wins at Charlotte four days after pit call cost him a win in the Coca-Cola 600
There would be no opportunity for a late pit stop decision Thursday night for Chase Elliott and his team.
Elliott passed Kevin Harvick with less than 28 laps to go and cruised away from Ryan Blaney to win a rain-delayed second race at Charlotte. Unlike Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600, the race did not have a caution flag near the finish as Elliott was unchallenged for the win.
“It’s not the Coke 600 but any win in the Cup Series is hard to get,” Elliott said.
As Elliott was leading Sunday’s race with two laps to go his teammate William Byron spun. Elliott’s crew chief Alan Gustafson brought him to pit road for four fresh tires. Elliott restarted 11th after eight cars decided not to pit. Brad Keselowski won the race as Elliott finished third before he was classified in second as Jimmie Johnson’s car failed inspection.
It was impossible for anyone watching Thursday night’s race to not wonder if Elliott and his crew would be put in the same situation again. But the race stayed green for the final 60 laps as Elliott’s car motored to the front over the final stretch.
“I was just waiting for the caution to come out to be honest with you,” Elliott said after Thursday night’s race. “I just either thought the caution was going to come out, I was going to break something or I was going to crash. After the last couple of weeks I thought surely it wasn’t going to go green to the end.”
Denny Hamlin finished second after beating Blaney to the finish line like he did in the Daytona 500. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fourth and Kurt Busch was fifth.
Harvick’s car fell like a rock after Elliott passed him. He ended up finishing 10th.
Rain delays the race. Again.
Thursday night’s race was supposed to be run on Wednesday. But rain from Tropical Depression Bertha pushed it to Thursday. And guess what? Thursday’s race was delayed during the first stage because of rain.
NASCAR is having a hard time with the weather. At least the weather forecasts for Sunday’s Cup Series race and Monday’s Xfinity Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway look really good.
Kyle Busch gets damage, finishes 29th
Kyle Busch’s night went south when he was on the outside of a four-wide situation following a mid-race restart.
Busch suffered a cut left-rear tire when he made contact with Aric Almirola’s car. The tire then damaged the fender on his car and ended up acting like a parachute of sorts. Busch lost two laps while his team put new tires on the car and he was only able to make one of those laps back before the end of the race. He finished 29th.
Alex Bowman hits wall while running second
Alex Bowman was two spots behind Busch in the running order. He hit the wall while he was second behind Harvick with 73 laps to go. Bowman was following Harvick in the low line through turns 3 and 4 and his car slid up the track and hit the wall on the exit of turn 4.
Lap 1 crash
Thursday’s race was the fourth Cup Series race in eight days. It was the second of those four races to have a crash before the end of lap 1.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — who finished fourth on Thursday night — crashed on the first lap of the May 17 race at Darlington. On Thursday it was Rick Ware Racing teammates Garrett Smithley and Joey Gase getting together on the first lap.
Brad Keselowski somehow finishes 7th
Just before the race was halted for lightning and rain during the first stage, Brad Keselowski suffered a cut right front tire and fell through the field. The tire significantly damaged the sheetmetal on the right front of Keselowski’s car and it sure looked like his night was toast.
It was not. The 600 winner’s team worked to fix the damage on his car all night and he worked his way through the field over the final green-flag stint to finish seventh. That was just one spot behind teammate Joey Logano, a driver who ran near the front of the field most of the night.
Shorter midweek races ain’t bad
We’ve now gotten the chance to experience two shorter-than-normal races on weeknights over the last eight days. And that’s not a bad thing.
Regularly-scheduled midweek races are a great way for NASCAR to shorten the duration of future schedules. And adding in a few races at around 300 miles each on intermediate tracks isn’t a bad thing either. Both last week’s midweek race at Darlington and Thursday night’s race at Charlotte had urgency that the 400-mile race at Darlington and the 600-mile race at Charlotte didn’t have.
While not every race on the NASCAR calendar should be shortened — the Daytona 500 should never be shorter and the same goes for the 600 and the Southern 500 — there are opportunities for a few races each year to be 300-350 miles at bigger tracks on a regular basis.
Full results
1. Chase Elliott
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Ryan Blaney
4. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
5. Kurt Busch
6. Joey Logano
7. Brad Keselowski
8. Austin Dillon
9. Martin Truex Jr.
10. Kevin Harvick
11. Jimmie Johnson
12. William Byron
13. John Hunter Nemechek
14. Tyler Reddick
15. Matt DiBenedetto
16. Clint Bowyer
17. Ryan Newman
18. Cole Custer
19. Corey LaJoie
20. Aric Almirola
21. Christopher Bell
22. Chris Buescher
23. Matt Kenseth
24. Ryan Preece
25. Michael McDowell
26. Erik Jones
27. Ty Dillon
28. Daniel Suarez
29. Kyle Busch
30. Gray Gaulding
31. Alex Bowman
32. Quin Houff
33. Timmy Hill
34. JJ Yeley
35. BJ McLeod
36. Josh Bilicki
37. Bubba Wallace
38. Brennan Poole
39. Joey Gase
40. Garrett Smithley
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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