Chase Elliott scores his second Cup Series win of the season at Nashville

Chase Elliott persevered through two extended race delays due to rain and lightning at Nashville Superspeedway to cruise into Victory Lane and win the Ally 400.

It was his second NASCAR Cup Series win this year and the 15th of his career, but it did not come easily.

Elliott finished eighth in Stage 1 and was scored fourth at the end of the second stage after overcoming a lengthy pit stop that left him mired in 25th place. His car continued to improve as Elliott drove his No. 9, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, to the front, taking the lead with 38 laps remaining.

The race, however, came down to a strategic call to stay out on the track during the last caution of the night while many of his competitors elected to pit.

Toyota drivers Denny Hamlin (114), Martin Truex Jr. (82) and Kyle Busch (54) had proven to be the most dominant cars of the night, leading a combined 250 laps, but all three decided to pit on the final caution.

And, when the checkered flag flew, the decision not to pit paid off as Elliott held off Kurt Bush for the final four laps to claim the unique Gibson guitar trophy.

“I’m so proud of our team,” Elliott said. “We had a setback about halfway, but we were able to get the NAPA Chevy dialed back in and get back in the mix. It was a long day, a fun day. I’m so proud of our team. We’ve had a pretty rough month, month and a half. It’s just nice to get back going in the right direction.

“Getting a win is always huge. To do it in a really cool city like Nashville is even better. I’m looking forward to that guitar (trophy).”

Kurt Busch regretted not being more aggressive and felt as though he let his team down.   

“I wanted to throw some fenders, but I didn’t get the job done,” he said. “Everybody will be smiling, but I let them down. I should have come up with a better plan.

“We were going to stay out no matter what, and I needed to start throwing fenders to move people around. I didn’t get after it, and I made too many mistakes and didn’t stick with our strength. I’m not going to say what our strength was, but we did a lot of things good.

“We didn’t have one exceptional item. We’re second with our Toyota Camry. I want to do it over, but you don’t get those at this elite level and Chase got the job done.”

Ryan Blaney finished third followed by Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, Austin Cindric, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick, rounding out the top 10.

Ally 400 Results:

1. Chase Elliott, 

2. Kurt Busch

3. Ryan Blaney

4. Kyle Larson

5. Ross Chastain

6. Denny Hamlin

7. Austin Cindric

8. Christopher Bell

9. Joey Logano

10. Kevin Harvick

11. Erik Jones

12. Bubba Wallace

13. Michael McDowell

14. Austin Dillon

15. Daniel Suarez

16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

17. Aric Almirola 

18. Tyler Reddick

19. AJ Allmendinger

20. Corey Lajoie

21. Kyle Busch

22. Martin Truex Jr. 

23. Justin Haley

24. Todd Gilliland

25. Harrison Burton

26. Cole Custer

27. Cody Ware

28. JJ Yeley

29. Brad Keselowski

30. Chris Buescher

31. Ty Dillon

32. BJ McLeod

33. Josh Bilicki

34. Chase Briscoe

35. William Byron

36. Alex Bowman

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

Angela Campbell
Angela Campbell
A native of Charlotte, NC, Angela (Angie) was first introduced to racing by her father. An avid fan of NASCAR, she found a way to combine her love of racing with her passion for writing. Angie is also an award-winning member of the National Motorsports Press Association. Follow her on Twitter @angiecampbell_ for the latest NASCAR news and feature stories.

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