Chase Elliott Wins the Cup Road Race at The Glen for the Second Straight Year

AP Photo

WATKINS GLEN. NY – RIS – Chase Elliott and Martin Truex followed a familiar script.  Just like in 2018, the two drivers were fighting for the win.  The result was the same, but this time Truex didn’t run out of fuel.  Elliott won the race for the second straight year.  You might say it was déjà vu all over again.

The win is Elliott’s second of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season and fifth of his career – all coming in the last 12 months.

"This is wild. Thank you guys, that was pretty awesome. I've never been so far from home and thought I was at my house," Elliott said to the cheers from the fans. "Thank you. What a day.

"We had such a bad fast Camaro and we stayed mistake-free. Martin was a little quicker those last two runs but track position was king and I didn't mess up in (Turn) 1 this time, so that was good.”

Denny Hamlin finished third, Erik Jones fourth and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top-five.

Rounding out the top-10 were Matt DiBenedetto, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch.

Elliott had already qualified for the postseason with his win at Talladega in May, but after four straight top-fives he hadn’t had a top-10 finish since June at Pocono, a span of seven races. He also led 400 laps in the opening 13 races but had led only nine laps since until Sunday.

It was a two-car race for more than half the 220.5-mile distance and the entire final 40 laps.

Truex began to exert some pressure after sitting behind Elliott for more than 10 laps in the final segment. Elliott held his ground until Truex’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota closed with six laps to go, waiting to pounce on a mistake that never came.

“I tried to do all I could. Chase did an excellent job just not making mistakes,” Truex said. “He hit his marks. His car was really fast in the key areas that you need to be. I just couldn’t get a run on him.

“Really, it was all about restarts and track position,” Truex said. “If I could have just got by him on that last one we could have set sail.”

Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson finished 19th but still made up ground in the race for the final playoff spot with new crew chief Cliff Daniels (Smithfield) calling the shots.

Truex was chasing a sweep of the two traditional road races on the schedule. He won at Sonoma in June for the second consecutive year and has five consecutive top-two finishes on road courses.

Race Results for the 34th Annual Go Bowling at The Glen - Aug 4, 2019
Watkins Glen International - 2.45 - Mile Road
Fin, Str, Driver, Car, Laps, St1, St2, Tms Le, Laps Led, Playoff Pts, Pts, Status
1) 1, Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet, 90, 1, 1, 3, 80, 7, 60, Running
2) 4, Martin Truex Jr, No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, 90, 3, 2, 1, 1, , 52, Running
3) 6, Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Cares Toyota, 90, 2, 5, , , , 49, Running
4) 14, Erik Jones, No. 20 DeWalt Toyota, 90, 8, 8, , , , 39, Running
5) 19, Ryan Blaney, No. 12 PPG Ford, 90, , 9, , , , 34, Running
6) 20, Matt DiBenedetto, No. 95 Procore Toyota, 90, , , , , , 31, Running
7) 15, Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Busch Beer Ford, 90, , 3, , , , 38, Running
8) 5, Kyle Larson, No. 42 McDonald's Chevrolet, 90, 7, , 1, 6, , 33, Running
9) 10, Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Autotrader Ford, 90, , 6, , , , 33, Running
10) 7, Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet, 90, 9, , , , , 29, Running
11) 3, Kyle Busch, No. 18 M&M's Hazelnut Toyota, 90, 4, , , , , 33, Running
12) 9, Aric Almirola, No. 10 Go Bowling Ford, 90, 10, , , , , 26, Running
13) 16, Chris Buescher, No. 37 Cottonelle Chevrolet, 90, , , , , , 24, Running
14) 17, Alex Bowman, No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet, 90, , 7, , , , 27, Running
15) 12, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, No. 17 Acronis Ford, 90, , , , , , 22, Running
16) 11, Michael McDowell, No. 34 Long John Silver's Ford, 90, , , , , , 21, Running
17) 18, Daniel Suarez, No. 41 Haas Automation Ford, 90, , , , , , 20, Running
18) 22, Paul Menard, No. 21 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford, 90, , , 1, 3, , 19, Running
19) 8, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Chevrolet, 90, 6, 10, , , , 24, Running
20) 13, Clint Bowyer, No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Haas Automation Ford, 90, , 4, , , , 24, Running
21) 2, William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Autoguard Chevrolet, 90, 5, , , , , 22, Running
22) 31, David Ragan, No. 38 MDS Transport Ford, 90, , , , , , 15, Running
23) 21, Joey Logano, No. 22 MoneyLion Ford, 90, , , , , , 14, Running
24) 26, Matt Tifft #, No. 36 Maui Jim/Surface Sunscreen Ford, 90, , , , , , 13, Running
25) 25, Ryan Newman, No. 6 Acronis Ford, 90, , , , , , 12, Running
26) 24, * Parker Kligerman(i), No. 96 TRD 40th Anniversary Toyota, 90, , , , , , 0, Running
27) 32, Ross Chastain(i), No. 15 Chevrolet, 90, , , , , , 0, Running
28) 30, Bubba Wallace, No. 43 Victory Junction Chevrolet, 90, , , , , , 9, Running
29) 34, Landon Cassill(i), No. 00 StarCom Fiber Chevrolet, 90, , , , , , 0, Running
30) 27, Ty Dillon, No. 13 GEICO Military Chevrolet, 89, , , , , , 7, Running
31) 28, Austin Dillon, No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet, 89, , , , , , 6, Running
32) 36, Josh Bilicki(i), No. 52 Chevrolet, 89, , , , , , 0, Running
33) 35, Cody Ware(i), No. 51 JACOB COMPANIES Chevrolet, 89, , , , , , 0, Running
34) 33, Corey LaJoie, No. 32 Samaritan's Feet Ford, 85, , , , , , 3, Engine
35) 23, Daniel Hemric #, No. 8 Caterpillar Chevrolet, 84, , , , , , 2, Running
36) 29, Ryan Preece #, No. 47 Kroger Chevrolet, 72, , , , , , 1, Rear Gear
37) 37, Reed Sorenson, No. 77 Chevrolet, 65, , , , , , 1, Steering
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 14 Mins, 17 Secs.
Total Race Length: 90 Laps - 220.5 Miles
Average Speed: 98.523 MPH
Margin of Victory: 0.454 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 9, 11, 19, 18, 24, 48, 42, 20, 1, 10
Stage 2 Top 10: 9, 19, 4, 14, 11, 2, 88, 20, 12, 48

Race Comments: Chase Elliott won the 34th Annual Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International, his 5th victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

Prior to the start of the race, the following cars dropped to the rear of the field under penalty for the reasons indicated: Nos. 12 (Unapproved adjustments).

Caution Flags: 4 for 13 laps;
Laps: 22-24 (Stage 1 Conclusion [51]);
34-36 (No. 77 Spin Inner Loop [96]);
40-43 (No. 43 Incident Turn 5, Stage 2 Conclusion [None]);
63-65 (No. 43, 18 Incident Turn 1;
No. 48, 12 Incident Inner Loop [6]).

Lead Changes: 5 among 4 drivers:
C. Elliott 1-22;
K. Larson 23-28;
C. Elliott 29-58;
M. Truex Jr 59;
P. Menard 60-62;
C. Elliott 63-90.

American Ethanol Green Flag Restart Award: Chase Elliott, No. 9 
Busch Pole Award: Chase Elliott, No. 9 127.297 mph
Fastest Lap: Martin Truex Jr, No. 19 
Moog Go the Extra Mile: Kyle Larson, No. 42 crew chief Chad Johnston, 8.063 seconds
Sunoco Rookie of the Race: Matt Tifft, No. 36

Ron Fleshman with John Davison

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2019, Issue 8, Posted 11:41 PM, 08.04.2019