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| Hendrick Motorsports |
Chase Elliott has won the inaugural “EchoPark Texas Grand Prix” at Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas, scoring his 12th victory in the NASCAR Cup Series.
After a wet weekend at COTA, the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Champion, Chase Elliott, has now become the 4th and final Hendrick Motorsports driver to score at least one victory in the 2021 season. In general during this race Hendrick Motorsports had both competitive and fast cars, but Chase Elliott was in the right place at the right time. With a slight drizzle at the track all afternoon, NASCAR raced through the rain with their wet tires. With 14 laps to go the rain picked up, water pooled up on the racing surface, and cars began to hydroplane. With 14 laps to go Chase Elliott was holding a steady lead, but then NASCAR through the caution, and later the red flag for inclement weather conditions. Had the race completed its final 14 laps, Elliott likely would not have won because he was a couple of laps short on fuel, though with the speed he possessed and the decent lead he had on the field he likely would have finished in the Top-10.
Some drivers in a similar situation towards the end of this race were; Kyle Busch, William Byron, and Alex Bowman. All three drivers needed to pit to make it to the end of this race, though had they known that the race would be rain shortened, I suspect that at least a couple of these drivers would not have pitted. This strategy handed Elliott the win, ruined what was a good day for Kyle Busch, and broke Byron’s Top-10 streak (with an 11th place finish).
This race saw some very unexpected moments. One of the most obvious was during stage 2, when heavy rain caused low visibility, and a slowing Michael McDowell was not seen by Martin Truex Jr., and Truex drove right underneath the No. 34 car. As Truex’s No. 19 Camry got out from underneath the No. 34, his car slowed, and like dominoes Cole Custer did not see the No. 19, and proceeded to drive straight into, and underneath Martin Truex Jr.. This incident ended both Truex’s and Custer’s day, but with his car only slightly damaged, McDowell continued racing and finished in 7th place. While not shown well, another significant incident in this race was the end to Christopher Bell’s, Kevin Harvick’s, and Bubba Wallace’s day. On the back straight away Harvick could not see the breaking zone, and unknowingly slowed down far to early. Somehow Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell managed to plow right into the No. 4 Mustang and destroyed their race cars.
Some unexpected success was also present in this race, where we saw Ross Chastain and Ryan Preece lead laps, and AJ Allmendinger running within the Top-10 all day (for Kaulig Racing). Ross Chastain finished 4th, scoring his very first Top-5, along with Rookie Chase Briscoe who today scored his first Top-10 in the NASCAR Cup Series.
While rain shortened races aren’t the most exciting finishes, overall this race was historical for NASCAR, and was an extraordinary showcase of talent!
Joey Logano won stage 1, and Kyle Busch won stage 2 of this race.
The following are the complete race results:
1. Chase Elliott- No. 9
2. Kyle Larson- No. 5
3. Joey Logano- No. 22
4. Ross Chastain- No. 42
5. AJ Allmendinger- No. 16
6. Chase Briscoe- No. 14
7. Michael McDowell- No. 34
8. Alex Bowman- No. 48
9. Tyler Reddick- No. 8
10. Kyle Busch- No. 18
11. William Byron- No. 24
12. Austin Dillon- No. 3
13. Chris Buescher- No. 17
14. Denny Hamlin- No. 11
15. Ryan Preece- No. 37
16. Erik Jones- No. 43
17. Ryan Blaney- No. 12
18. Anthony Alfredo- No. 38
19. Brad Keselowski- No. 2
20. Corey LaJoie- No. 7
21. Ty Dillon- No. 96
22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.- No. 47
23. Matt DiBenedetto- No. 21
24. Ryan Newman- No. 6
25. Austin Cindric- No. 33
26. Aric Almirola- No. 10
27. Kurt Busch- No. 1
28. Garrett Smithley- No. 53
29. James Davison- No. 15
30. Josh Bilicki- No. 52
31. Kyle Tilley- No. 78
32. Cody Ware- No. 51
33. Daniel Suárez- No. 99
34. Quin Houff- No. 00 - DVQ
35. Martin Truex Jr.- No. 19 - DNF
36. Cole Custer- No. 41 - DNF
37. Kevin Harvick- No. 4 - DNF
38. Christopher Bell- No. 20 - DNF
39. Bubba Wallace- No. 23 - DNF
40. Justin Haley- No. 77 - DNF
A huge and frightening hit for Cole Custer and Martin Truex Jr. at Circuit of The Americas. pic.twitter.com/dGmCoXQPx6
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 23, 2021
Insanity.@COTA | #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/15rXDfJymZ
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 23, 2021
Only one way to explain this: Magic pic.twitter.com/vfALtsMae5
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 23, 2021
That was a wild one. pic.twitter.com/ZUZKBO2HWa
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 23, 2021
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