ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — He never got comfortable in practice and never got a lap at speed in qualifying, but Chase Elliott did come away …
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — He never got comfortable in practice and never got a lap at speed in qualifying, but Chase Elliott did come away with the big prize Sunday at Road America. The popular 25-year-old second-generation star and reigning Cup Series champion won the Jockey Made in America 250, the first race for the NASCAR’s premier series in Wisconsin in 65 years. Elliott, who started 34th, drove his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to a victory of 5.705 seconds over Christopher Bell for his second victory of the Cup season and 13th overall. Seven of those have come on road courses, including the inaugural race at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, in May. He has the most road course wins among active drivers and ranks third overall. «This track has a lot of character to it,» said Elliott, who led 24 of the 62 laps on the rolling 4.048-mile course. «It’s so long. You have a lot of opportunity to make mistakes or be good whenever you hit it. «Just has a lot of character to it, a lot of bumps, a lot of sections that are really tricky to get through.» Kyle Busch, who won the Xfinity Series race a day earlier, finished third. His brother, Kurt, was fourth and Denny Hamlin was fifth. After struggling to find a rhythm in practice Saturday, Elliott was hurt in the 25-minute first-round qualifying session Sunday morning, when caution flags interrupted both of his attempts to lay down a fast lap on the 4.048-mile layout and ran out of time for a third try. Elliott, Busch and a handful of others who started deep in the field took advantage of an alternate pit strategy, diving in on the 11th lap anticipating a caution that came a lap later while some teams waited for the stage break.
