Chase Elliott wins Martinsville Cup Race

In a must-win situation, Chase Elliott drove his #9 Hendrick NAPA Chevy to a comfortable 6.5-sec. win in the Xfinity 500 NASCAR Cup race at the 1/2-mile Martinsville paperclip shaped track over the Fords of Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano.

Elliott led 236 of 500 laps in the round of 8 finale – his 4th win of the year.

Brad Keselowski’s Penske Ford was 4th while Alex Bowman rounded out the top-5.

It was Elliott’s first ever win at Martinsville, and he guarantees himself a shot at the Cup title at Phoenix along with the Toyota of Denny Hamlin and the two Penske Fords of Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski.

Hamlin qualified for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 with two strong stage finishes and an 11th-place finish in the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday evening.

Regular season champ Kevin Harvick was eliminated from the title hunt when he crashed on the last lap trying to pass Kyle Busch.

Harvick, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch were eliminated from the playoffs.

After winning the Regular Season Championship and earning nine race victories this year, Harvick struggled through the early stages of the race when things went from bad to worse after a left-rear tire went down on the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet on Lap 182. He went two laps down in the process.

Harvick looked like he was mounting a comeback when he rejoined the lead lap on Lap 400. Harvick was within one point of Hamlin to make the Championship 4 when he tried a last-ditch effort to pass Kyle Busch coming to the checkered flag, spinning out both himself and Busch in the process. Harvick crashed on the frontstretch before crossing the finish line in 17th.

Truex appeared poised to earn victory in the final stretch of the race, taking the lead on the last restart. Truex would lose the lead to Elliott with 43 laps remaining. Truex reported a loose right-front rear with 40 laps to go. He had to pit with 26 laps to go fix the issue. Truex was also eliminated from the playoffs after finishing 22nd.

Quotes

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Race Winner

AT THE MOST IMPORTANT TIME, YOU SEE YOUR FIRST VICTORY AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY. YOUR CREW IS A LITTLE EXCITED, AS YOU ARE TOO, RIGHT CHASE?

“Oh, my gosh. This is the biggest win ever for us. I’m just so proud to be able to be backed into a corner like that and have to win tonight. I feel like that’s what we’ve been missing these past four or five years and perform when we don’t have a choice. And, to do that tonight; we couldn’t ask for a better night. This is unreal. Thanks to the fans for coming out. They’re here and I love to see it! I’ve just got to catch my breath. This is just unbelievable. We’re going to Phoenix with a shot to win a championship and have a beautiful blue NAPA Camaro headed out there with a shot to win a title. What more could you ask for?

WHEN YOU HAD YOUR CAR BACK IN THE PACK A LITTLE BIT AND A COUPLE OF MISCUES ON PIT ROAD, WHAT CONCERNS DID YOU HAVE?

“Yeah, I didn’t think our car was driving as good there at the end as it was at the beginning of the race. But those last couple of pit stops made some really good changes and had a good pit stop on that last one and a good last restart. And that was the difference. Everybody makes this possible. This is unbelievable. I’m just at a bit of a loss for words. Like I said, this is the piece we’ve been missing. I feel like we’ve had the group to do this. We just have to go make it happen, and we did tonight.”

Brad Keselowski

“I thought I was part race car driver and part mathematician. I am so happy for Team Penske. It was a hard-fought day. I got a speeding penalty there with 70 or 80 to go and I’m not sure how. The box where I got the speeding penalty was where my car was pitted. I’m just really thankful to be going on to the Championship 4. There was nothing I could do but pass as many cars as I could with our Dent Wizard Ford. I know we’ve got great cars on these short tracks and one-mile tracks. We bring this kind of effort at the end of the race at Phoenix we’ve got a great shot at it.”

Joey Logano

“Everyone on the Shell-Pennzoil team is excited, and we’re ready to go.  This is a great opportunity.  We were able to lock ourselves in a couple of weeks ago, and we’re able to breathe for a minute and get through these last couple races.  What a crazy race it was today for those guys trying to get their way in. The advantage we earned the last couple of weeks was to be able to focus on our Phoenix car before everybody. Our batteries are charged up and we’re ready to go.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Shipathon Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

What was the closing laps of that race like?

“It was tough. Our car was fading a little bit. I was also getting into some spots where I was getting roughed up by some teammates, not really ours, just some of the guys that are in the battle. I didn’t even want to be a part of it, so I would just get out of it and then I put myself in an interesting spot where the 4 (Kevin Harvick) was going for it a little bit and we were very fortunate he didn’t go for it any further than he did. We did just enough. That’s what we needed to do – is do enough to make it to Phoenix and give ourselves a shot at the championship. This FedEx team definitely deserves to be in the top four and glad that we are able to give it a shot next week.”

Handicap your chances next week?

“I think we can win any given week for sure. The short tracks haven’t been great for us all year, but you just never know. Last year, we went there and nearly lapped the field, so who knows how it’s going to turn out. One race, winner take all, you never know.”

How stressful were the last 100 laps with the points getting so close?

“I think we were in most of the time. Just lost the handling there as soon as it went night. We were not very good. A lot of that too, I got up into sixth or seventh and some guys teammates were kind of rubbing up against you and it’s like, ‘yeah, I don’t want to cut a tire,’ so I backed out of that. Then we just fell to a spot that was a little more open. Proud of this whole FedEx Shipathon Toyota team. I feel bad for Kevin (Harvick), they probably deserve better than that. It’s just the format, I guess. Everything you do for eight innings doesn’t matter if you don’t have a great ninth inning. It’s just tough to see. I really wish we were going to race those guys next week. It will be a tough battle with those other three that we’re going to have to race. We’re definitely going to have to step up our short track program.”

Are you surprised the 4 team isn’t in the Championship 4 next week?

“I think they deserve to be in. They have nine wins. There’s not a person on this planet that would say they aren’t a top-four team. We wanted to create a Game 7 moment, so this is what you get. If you have a bad race or two in a three-race series, you’re out. We’re very fortunate with our FedEx team to be able to lean on all the work that we did in the regular season to get Playoff points and win the most stages throughout the season than anyone else. We’re optimistic, we’ll see.”

How do you feel about Phoenix?

“It’s an entirely different ballgame now. It really is. The aerodynamic package is a lot different. There’re no similarities that you can really draw to it. You just never know. Obviously, we’re going to be ready and we’re going to be prepared and hopefully we’ll go out there and show what we’ve got.”

Race Results