Chase Elliott Dominates The NASCAR Clash At Bowman Gray Stadium
Everyone was chasing Chase!
Chase Elliott won the season-kickoff NASCAR Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Sunday night from pole.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver led 171 laps of the 200-lap race to claim his first career Clash win.
Elliott held the lead from the start until lap 96, when Denny Hamlin got by him and was followed by Tyler Reddick on lap 99 to wrap up the first half of the race, which had a competition caution for tire changes after lap 100.
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Coming out of the break, Elliott took advantage of two caution periods to work his way past Reddick on lap 120 then get by Hamlin on 127. He remained in control of the race from there on out and even picked up the fastest lap to cap off a perfect weekend. Ryan Blaney ended up finishing second ahead of Hamlin and Joey Logano.
Elliott, who was recently named NASCAR’s most popular driver for the seventh straight year, thanked the 17,000 fans that packed the historic venue after the race.
“Thanks everybody for coming out. Y’all made for a really fun environment for us. You know, we don’t race in stadiums like this. You know, so, just really cool. Appreciate for you making that moment special,” Elliott said during his post-race interview on Fox. “I hope it was a good show for you.”
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Despite the quarter-mile track’s reputation as The Madhouse for a brand of rough and tumble racing that often leads to fights between drivers, the Clash didn’t quite live up to its name and was relatively tame.
The biggest highlight came during the Last Chance Qualifier race earlier in the night, when Justin Haley bumped Ty Gibbs into a spin and Gibbs repaid the favor by slamming into Haley’s car in a way that sent Gibbs’ car airborne.
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The Cup Series now heads to Florida for the Daytona 500 with the Daytona Duels qualifiers on Thursday, Feb. 13 and the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 16.
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