CONCORD, N.C. – Chase Elliott secured his third road-course win in a row Sunday night after he took home the checkered flag from the first running of the DAYTONA Road Course.
The driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE dominated the field in the victory, leading by 10 seconds at one point before a late-race caution forced a restart.
Despite having to hold off the second-place driver for the last couple of laps, Elliott executed the 14-turn course expertly, avoided any incidences and crossed the finish line first.
“I think if you execute and do your part from the driver's side, you should be able to keep those opportunities from happening if you stay mistake free,” Elliott said. “Fortunately, I was able to get a good jump, had a good Turn 1, and then tried to just fall into rhythm there and just tried not to overdrive it.”
Despite Elliott crediting the No. 9 team with the win, he was steady on the course. Unlike a few of the other drivers, Elliott had never driven the road course for the Rolex 24, making his nearly perfect afternoon even more impressive.
“Our guys did a phenomenal job,” Elliott said. “We just had a phenomenal car. I don’t think I did anything very special. I think (crew chief) Alan (Gustafson) and all our guys did a really good job pitting there at the start. We made a couple really small adjustments, I felt like, there, at that first stop and I was really kind of able to leave it after that. So, I just appreciate everybody that makes this happen.”
Elliott’s teammates also had a solid day at the course. Jimmie Johnson placed fourth, William Byron finished in eighth and Alex Bowman secured a 12th-place finish.
Elliott already was secured in the playoffs after his Charlotte victory but the win at Daytona could help prepare him from elimination at the Charlotte roval in October.
“The roval is obviously a long way off. Everybody is going to get better from what they had (Sunday),” Elliott said. “There's a lot of racing between now and the roval we need to focus on. A good run here gives us a good baseline of a few things we improved on. But it is a different track from Charlotte. That is a different animal I feel like, but some similarities, but certainly different, too.”
The win at the DAYTONA Road Course marks the fourth overall road-course victory for Elliott. With the next road-course race nearly two months away, the No. 9 driver is focusing on the double-header weekend at Dover International Speedway as the regular season winds down.