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NASCAR Road America: Elliott returns to form with win

Elliott took command of the race on lap 46 of the 62-lap race, as Kyle Busch passed Aric Almirola on a restart and Elliott then cleared Busch in Turn 12 to grab the lead for the final time.

On lap 59, Christopher Bell got around Busch to move into second but couldn’t mount a serious challenge and finished 5.7 seconds behind Elliott.

The win is Elliott’s second this season – the other came in a rain-shortened race at Circuit of the Americas.

In his career, seven of Elliott’s 13 wins have now come on road courses.

 

“Just really proud of our team for overcoming some adversity early and having to start in the back, having good pitstops,” Elliott said. “Had a really fast Chevrolet. Just so proud.

“We’ve had a rough few weeks, so it feels really good. I guess I was supposed to do a burnout here [in Turn 5], I’m sorry. I missed the memo. I did a really cool one on the frontstretch.”

On the challenge of tackling a new track in the Cup Series, Elliott said: “This track has a lot of character to it. It’s so long. You have a lot of opportunity to make mistakes or be good whenever you hit it.

“I mean, four miles is a long course. It just has a lot of character to it, a lot of bumps, a lot of sections that are really tricky to get through.

“I think conserving your tyre was actually a little bit of a thing today, which to be honest we don’t have much of that I feel like any more.

“It was a little different race.”

Kyle Busch ended up third, Kurt Busch was fourth and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.

Completing the top 10 were Chase Briscoe (who tied his career high), Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex Jr and Matt DiBenedetto.

Following the break between stages 2 and 3, several cars pitted but Kyle Busch stayed out and took over the lead.

But DiBenedetto was able to get around Busch near Turn 12 on the restart lap and reclaimed the lead, before Elliott went to the inside of DiBenedetto entering Turn 1 on Lap 38 and came away with the lead for the first time in the race.

On lap 43, Anthony Alfredo blew a right-rear brake rotor, went off course in Turn 1 and ended up stuck in the gravel trap. That brought out a caution, setting up what could be the final pit stops of the race.

Ryan Blaney had pit just before the caution to repair damage to his hood which set himself up for a big gain in track position on the restart.

Most of the lead-lap cars pitted under the caution when Anthony Alfredo blew a right-rear brake rotor and ended up stuck in the Turn 1 gravel, with Kyle Busch the first off pit road.

He soon grabbed grabbed the lead on the restart only to see Elliott power by him in Turn 12 to reclaim the top spot, from which he began to open up a 3.4-second lead.

Earlier, Reddick took over the lead when several drivers pit under green and held off William Byron – who claimed the Stage 1 win under caution – to take the Stage 2 win.

Result

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