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
