Chase Elliott won the GoBowling.com 235 on Sunday, the first NASCAR Cup Series race on the Daytona International Speedway road course. It was his second win of the season and eighth of his career, but, perhaps, more impressively, Sunday’s win was Elliott’s third win in as many road-course races, dating back to the 2019 season. Overall, it was his fourth win on a road course.
“Our guys did a phenomenal job,” Elliott said. “We just had a phenomenal car. I don’t think I did anything very special today. I think Alan [Gustafson, crew chief] and all our guys did a really good job pitting, there, at the start. We made a couple really small adjustments, I felt like, there, at that first stop, and I was really kind of able to leave it after that. So I just appreciate everybody that makes this happen. Thanks to the fans. Good to see you guys back. Appreciate you all coming out. And just thanks to all our partners and Chevrolet. I spent a lot of time with them this past week. A special thanks to Jordan Taylor and Boris Said for reaching out and being willing to help this weekend — some road course ringers. I tried to lean on them and luckily everything worked out.”
Denny Hamlin finished second.
“I just would have liked to have stayed closer to him [Elliott] to put a little pressure on entries,” Hamlin said. “My entries were the strong point against him, but I was giving him four car-lengths, so he could kind of drive the entries the way he wanted to make sure he got a good exit. I wasn’t quite clean enough the last few laps, but I definitely gave myself a chance. Those last couple corners, I felt like I did as much as I could to get to him and tried to do it the right way.”
Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Martin Truex Jr., passed Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jimmie Johnson, on the final lap for his fifth-consecutive third-place finish. Johnson finished fourth, and Chris Buescher was fifth.
“That was just a fun day for our Fastenal Ford Mustang team,” Buescher said. “We needed that after a couple of hard weeks. Some decent runs and some bad luck, and that was fun. I was able to mix it up and steadily work our way forward. We kept learning as we went and, there, at the end, we got beat up. All four corners of this Mustang are beat up, but we got the finish out of it. That was a good one — good day.”
Elliott ran a seemingly flawless race while some of the Cup Series’ top stars made miscues, some more than one. Reigning champion Kyle Busch spun and flat-spotted his tires twice, first on lap three and, again, on lap 25. Even so, Busch was up to second by a green-flag cycle of stops began with about 20 laps remaining. Busch and Elliott pitted under green with about 17 laps remaining, giving up the top-two positions in the running order. Elliott cycled back to the lead with 12 laps remaining, while Busch was in the garage with his team repairing a brake problem.
Busch returned to the race but spun and hit the wall with five laps remaining. The incident resulted in the only caution of the race for an on-track incident.
Season race leader Kevin Harvick started on the pole but failed to lead a lap. He spun on a restart just past lap 30 and, again, several laps later.
Elliott won the first 15-lap stage of the race after most of the stage was led by Hamlin and Truex. Truex took the lead from Hamlin on lap 10, but the teammates gave up positions to pit under green in the closing laps of the stage. Elliott, though, opted to stay out until the end of the stage for the stage win.
After Elliott pitted at the end of the stage, Joey Logano and Hamlin were on the front row for the restart for stage two. Hamlin took the lead on the restart, and a few laps later on lap 21, Logano made his first pit stop. Logano originally planned a strategy of running the race on only two pit stops, compared to three for everyone else.
Like in the first stage, Hamlin lost the lead to his teammate, Truex, on lap 22. And like in the first stage, Truex gave up the lead to pit under green near the end of the stage, but second time around, he was nabbed speeding on pit road.
“Just a strong run for our Bass Pro Toyota,” Truex said. “Thought we had a chance to win, no doubt about it. Just got caught speeding on pit road. Had to go to the rear and, then, got damage, so we had to go to the rear, again. We passed a lot of cars that last run. I know we had the speed at the end, there; we were faster than anyone. Just ran out of time, but that’s how it goes. Proud of everybody on the team and still feeling really good about these road courses.”
Hamlin stayed out to win the second stage at lap 30.
Elliott pitted just before the end of the second stage and cycled to the lead when others stopped during the caution at the end of the stage. He led most of the remainder of the race, with the exception of laps during the green-flag cycle of stops in the final 20 laps. By the checkered flag, Elliott led 34 laps of the 65-lap race.
The 35-lap final stage of the race included a 30-minute break for lightning after lap 36.
Clint Bowyer finished sixth. Kaz Grala finished seventh in his Cup Series debut as substitute for Austin Dillon, who was sidelined by COVID-19. William Byron was eighth, Logano ninth, and Michael McDowell passed Erik Jones on the final lap for his first top-10 finish on a road course.
“It was a decent day,” McDowell said. “We had high hopes, which is good. You should come to places like this where we have a lot of experience and track knowledge. Unfortunately, we started really deep in the field, and we were able to drive up to the top-10, there, before the end of the first stage, and then, we talked about it, and it was all about trying to win a race for us. We didn’t try to get stage points. We came in with a few laps to go, and we were able to get into the top-five and get to third. I saw those rain clouds coming, and I thought that was exactly what I needed. I was hoping that it would rain, because I have experience on this course in the rain, and the others guys don’t, really. We lost a little bit, there, at the end and got passed by guys that had fresher tires. We still managed to get in the top-six or seven, and then, that caution came out with five to go. We knew we weren’t going to beat Chase and those guys up front on the same tires, so we just took tires.”
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