Chase Elliott coasts to long-awaited first win, Hendrick Motorsports 250th | 40 wins in 40 days

Editor’s note: This is the 28th in a 40-part series highlighting 40 of the greatest wins in the history of Hendrick Motorsports to finish its 40th anniversary season. A new installment will be released each day from Nov. 22, 2024 through New Year’s Eve. Votes were taken from Hendrick Motorsports employees as well as representatives of the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Racing Insights with all unanimous selections being ushered in automatically. The remaining wins were deliberated and decided upon by a small panel.

CONCORD, N.C. - By the middle of 2018, the pressure to win had reached a fever pitch in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet camp. 

Chase Elliott had made the playoffs in each of his first two seasons, finishing fifth in 2017. Not at all bad for a driver still in his early 20s. 

But over that time, he also accumulated eight second place finishes and no victories. Up to that point, through 98 career starts, it was the classic tale of always the bridesmaid, never the bride. 

“Over those first two years, we found ways not to win and it wasn’t just once or twice, it was gobs of races,” crew chief Alan Gustafson said. “I’m talking eight or so. It just got to the point where it was like, ‘What do we have to do?’ It started to become so big that it was a distraction and it was something you thought about."

HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 40 WINS: How Gordon and Evernham 'snookered' field in first win

Heading into Watkins Glen International, however, Gustafson, who was celebrating his 43rd birthday on race day (Aug. 5), knew Elliott had a shot to finally break through. And there was data to back it up, even if those numbers weren't necessarily public knowledge. 

Nowadays, Elliott's road-racing acumen is world renowned, especially in stock-car racing circles. But at that time, it was one of racing's best kept secrets that was about to get out in a big way. 

“I knew the year before. I think the year before we tested Watkins Glen and it was a repave and we were doing a tire test and running through the motions and testing all the parts and pieces,” Gustafson recalled. “He was always good, but we got to a point where we got him comfortable and figured out what he wanted in a road-racing car and the lap times at that test were ridiculous. I remember we were all like, ‘Wow.’ AJ (Allmendinger) came over there and was like, ‘Dude, what are you doing?’”

“We went back to that race (in 2017) and had brake issues, so we never had a great chance to show what we had worked on. I knew then, though, ‘Yeah, he’s really good.’" 

HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 40 WINS: Terry Labonte wins 'Iron Man' race

Maybe even Gustafson didn't fully realize just how good. After all, Elliott and the No. 9 team were about to kick off a stretch in which they won seven out of 11 NASCAR Cup Series events on road courses. His average finish of ninth on such tracks tops all active drivers. 

His speed and skill started to show in stage two on that August day in upstate New York. Elliott restarted third, slipped into second and then dogged veteran Kyle Busch for a handful of laps until Busch let the No. 9 pass to the sound of an eruption from the fans along the frontstretch. He'd go on to win the stage. 

After pit mishaps for Busch and Denny Hamlin, Elliott took the lead on the stage three restart, but a new contender emerged in the form of Martin Truex Jr, defending race winner who entered having topped the last two Cup Series road course races. 

In 2017, Truex Jr. pitted on lap 53 and stretched his fuel until the end to go to victory lane. And wouldn't you know it, the pit stop between stage breaks in 2018 came at lap 53 as well. Truex had the experience, and he also had speed. As the old saying goes, "To be the man, you have to beat the man."

HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 40 WINS: Jimmie Johnson nabs first career win at Fontana

Elliott had the lead on the restart and Gustafson was mildly confident his team could do just that, although he grew increasingly anxious as the laps ticked off. Elliott and Truex were setting a blistering pace at the front of the field while running 1-2. And whether it was Elliott ripping off hot laps to force Truex to keep up or it was Truex pushing Elliott to run faster than he would've liked, both were burning fuel at a borderline unsustainable rate. 

“We were battling (Truex) and we had cut the margin right to the edge on both pit stops and running to the end," Gustafson said. "We would’ve been fine at a good pace, but we were in front of (Truex) and he was full of gas. He was pushing us so hard; we were running qualifying laps, and I didn’t know if we had the fuel to do it, but you had no choice."

With 10 to go, Elliott had an advantage of over 14 seconds on third-place Erik Jones but still had a mirror full of Truex. It all set up a classic, Watkins Glen battle to the finish. 

Truex Jr. was less than two car lengths away and when Elliott overran turn one on the white-flag lap, nearly snatched the lead away. But Elliott was able to hold him off one more time and then, coming out of the carousel, it was the No. 78 that started sputtering. 

Gustafson immediately jumped on the radio. 

HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 40 WINS: Kyle Larson gets Indy redemption in '24 Brickyard 400

“The 78 ran out and I was like, ‘Coast! Coast! Coast!'" Gustafson said.

And he did, straight to a win. 

But that's about all the further he could go. As celebratory screams were shouted over the radio, Elliott ran out of fuel on the cooldown lap, coming to a stop as the field rolled by to offer their congratulations. 

Seeing a teammate in need, seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson threw it in reverse, hooked on to Elliott's bumper and pushed him back to the start-finish line in one of the more memorable postrace gestures in recent memory. 

“Jimmie was a really great teammate to me and to Chase through all the near misses,” Gustafson said. “He was always the guy that kind of gave you a pep talk. Dover (Motor Speedway) stands out. We had like a 10-second lead and we couldn’t get past Ryan Newman and Kyle Busch passes us and then Jimmie is the one that consoled Chase right away. I thought it was fitting that he’s the one that pushed us back to victory lane after our cool down lap.”

HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 40 WINS: Kyle Larson scores 500th win for engine shop

Finally, all the talent and promise had come to fruition with a victory. Elliott expressed his great relief in his postrace interview. 

But most importantly, the lid had finally come off for the young driver who has since gone on to win 18 more Cup Series races and a championship in 2020. The world got a glimpse of that future on that Sunday. 

But Gustafson knew it all along, no matter how long the team had to wait for victory number one. He'd already seen it at some of the sport's toughest venues. 

"I talked to Chase about this prior to his rookie season, for my money the two hardest tracks are Martinsville (Speedway) and Sonoma (Raceway)," Gustafson said. "Those are the two hardest for a driver to figure out. To see the gains he made at Martinsville quickly and then Sonoma was the same thing, he got pretty competitive from practice session to practice session and then to the race. It was like, ‘Yeah, he’s going to be OK.’”