By Holly Cain, NASCAR.com
In only his fifth NASCAR Cup Series season, Chase Elliott is proving himself a road course master, easily besting the field Sunday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval and more importantly, the 24-year old continues to establish himself as a perennial championship contender.
Elliott’s win in the Bank of America ROVAL 400 Playoff race was his fourth consecutive road course victory, a mark of excellence shared only with NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon, who won six straight road course races. It’s his second consecutive win in this race and Sunday’s trophy is an automatic qualifier for Elliott into the three-race Playoff Round of 8, which begins next week at Kansas Speedway.
RELATED: Official race results
Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet tied teammate William Byron for most laps led – a race best 26 laps on the day including the final 18, as he held off runner-up Joey Logano by a healthy 3.895-seconds to earn his third win of the year.
Erik Jones, Kurt Busch and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five. Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron was sixth, followed by Martin Truex Jr., Hendrick driver Alex Bowman, rookie Cole Custer and Clint Bowyer, who was trying to race his way into the next Playoff round but did not move forward despite the top 10 effort.
“Just had another really fast NAPA Camaro and really appreciate the effort,” Elliott said. “Road courses have been fortunate to us the last few trips, but I feel like we just try to get a little better every time, tweak on the small things. I feel like I tweaked on small things and got a little better than I was here last year, which was good.
“Just really proud of the effort.”
The Roval was the second round Playoff cut-off race – sending eight drivers forward and eliminating title hopes for four. None of those four drivers – including reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch – still needing to gain points to advance, were able to improve positions Sunday afternoon.
As for Elliott, the victory and historical significance were a well-timed boost heading into the next Playoff round as he attempts to earn his first ever appearance in the Championship 4 making a run for his first NASCAR Cup Series title. He won the 2018 Playoff race at next week’s Kansas Speedway oval.
“Like I’ve always said, they’re way too hard to get [wins] to get picky about when and where and how,” Elliott said. “So I’m just glad to be here and like I said, hopefully we can do something with this next round.”
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