Chase Elliott notches big win, celebrates with fans at Road America

By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — During a break in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Road America, Kyle Larson asked his crew chief how Chase Elliott took the lead.

His crew chief told him it was typical Elliott: He took advantage of other drivers’ mistakes and is great on road courses.

Elliott did do that, but he also pushed the issue when necessary Sunday in the final stage, passing Kyle Busch for the lead and then Aric Almirola on a restart after pit stops. He led 24 of the final 25 laps in capturing his second victory of the season and seventh career victory on a road course.

"I just wasn’t comfortable waiting," Elliott said. "I felt like I wanted control of the race, and that was the best place to be. ... I had to get aggressive to get going."

Here are three takeaways from Elliott’s win at Road America:

Big crowd, big Elliott fans

Road America, a massive, 4.048-mile road course about 75 miles north of Milwaukee, attracted fans for the first Cup race at the track since 1956. All 1,600 campsites were sold, and NASCAR had to use off-site parking to shuttle people into the track.

Elliott, the sport’s most popular driver, was a little surprised by the enthusiasm for his win and did multiple burnouts at the track as fans chanted and wanted to see him celebrate. 

"The road to that first win, the lessons learned along the way, one of them is you have to enjoy these moments," said Elliott, who didn’t win a Cup race until his 99th start and now has 13 career wins in 205 starts. "They're way too hard to get.

"You don't know if or when you'll ever get another one. If the fans want a burnout, I'm going to give them a burnout. That's what it's going to be. We'll take the extra time going down the road."

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Elliott finds road-course groove 

With his victory, Elliott reestablished himself as the driver to beat on road courses about a month after Kyle Larson won at Sonoma.

It didn’t come easily, as Elliott started 34th after a qualifying session in which he didn’t post a lap at a fast speed. He fell victim to a quirk in the NASCAR rules for road-course qualifying, in which there is an opening round of 25 minutes and every driver must do a lap during the session. Both times Elliott went out to try to do a lap at qualifying speed, the caution came out for an incident on the track, so Elliott ran out of time to record a fast lap. 

As a result, he started near the rear of the field with other drivers who failed to post speeds. But in the end, it didn't matter.

Elliott was most worried about damaging his car after he did so while in traffic in both races a week ago at Pocono Raceway. 

"I was trying really hard not to knock the nose off of it or get hit, have body damage," the Hendrick Motorsports driver said. "Bodies are just so important now. Even at the road courses, you don't want to suffer any damage if you can help it.

"I did a poor job of that at Pocono. ... There's a reason that we build them the way we build them. When you break it, it doesn't work as good. There's a reason for all that. I tried to do a better job today of not breaking it."

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No Hendrick drama

Larson was spun by Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman late in the race as they battled for fourth. Bowman went to Larson afterward to apologize and explain that he had no brakes.

"It’s just tight racing," Larson said. "I was caught off-guard when I got spun, so I knew it wasn’t on purpose. ... I just assumed he wheel-hopped or something. I’m disappointed, but there’s nothing you can do about it now."

Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!