{"id":25466,"date":"2019-04-29T18:39:07","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T23:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=25466"},"modified":"2019-05-01T18:48:25","modified_gmt":"2019-05-01T23:48:25","slug":"talladega-win-provides-much-needed-boost-to-chase-elliott-and-chevrolet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/29\/talladega-win-provides-much-needed-boost-to-chase-elliott-and-chevrolet\/","title":{"rendered":"Talladega win provides much-needed boost to Chase Elliott and Chevrolet"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Chase Elliott\u2019s wildly popular victory Sunday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway was a statement-maker for Chevrolet and Elliott\u2019s Hendrick Motorsports team \u2013 a not-so-subtle reminder that Chevy\u2019s bowtie brigade will have a say in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup championship, too.<\/p>\n

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Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 Mountain Dew\/Little Caesar’s Chevrolet, does a burn out after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 28, 2019 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Elliott led teammate Alex Bowman and Chevrolet rookie Ryan Preece across the finish line under caution Sunday in the GEICO 500, earning Chevrolet its first victory in the 10-race old 2019 season and Hendrick\u2019s first one-two finish since the 2016 season. In a year so far dominated by five-win Toyota and four-win Ford efforts, Elliott\u2019s work was crucial personally, team-wise and manufacturer-wise.<\/p>\n

And judging by the Talladega crowd reaction, there is no question this was a win well-appreciated for the Georgia-native Elliott.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly can’t describe it to you,\u201d a grinning Elliott said. \u201cAfter the race was over, just kind of the way it ended, I was in la\u2011la land down there when I was looking for the checkered flag. Every time I stood up, the crowd stood up. Every time I got fired up, they got fired up. That’s something you can’t ever take for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said, people might not always like you. It’s days like today, those moments, that you’ll cherish and never forget. Certainly I won’t. These races are too hard to win to not enjoy those moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 Mountain Dew\/Little Caesar’s Chevrolet, takes the checkered flag to win the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 28, 2019 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Elliott paced a bowtie brigade that included not just the make\u2019s first 1-2-3 sweep of the year but a resounding superspeedway statement with six of the top eight finishers – also including rookie Daniel Hemric (fifth), Kurt Busch (sixth) and Brendan Gaughan (eighth). Chevy drivers also swept all three of the race stage wins with Ty Dillon winning the first and Elliott winning both the second stage and then the race.<\/p>\n

In all, Chevy drivers led 74 of 188 laps, including Elliott\u2019s race-best 45 laps, in halting a seven-race winning streak at Talladega by rival Ford. It\u2019s only the second time this season a Chevy driver has led the most laps in a race \u2013 the last time it happened Kyle Larson led a race-best 142 laps but finished 12th<\/sup> at Atlanta.<\/p>\n

Each of the manufacturers went into Sunday\u2019s event stressing the need for their respective teams and drivers to work together unselfishly \u2013 big picture in focus. And certainly Elliott\u2019s victory was a trophy-winning by-product of the teamwork emphasis.<\/p>\n

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Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 Mountain Dew\/Little Caesar’s Chevrolet, and Aric Almirola, driver of the #10 Smithfield Ford, lead Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, and Alex Bowman, driver of the #88 Nationwide Chevrolet, during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 28, 2019 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI felt like it was a team win, for sure,\u2019\u2019 Elliott said. \u201cThe large majority of the day we were working together as a bowtie group, as Team Chevy. I felt like we executed that well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we could make it better, too. Just because it worked out, I don’t think we need to be content in the results. I think we need to realize we can do a better job.<\/p>\n

“There’s certainly power in numbers at these races. When you have guys being selfless, wanting to push and make the lane go, it makes a difference. Certainly worked out for us today. I know it didn’t work out for some. It felt like it all kind of happens for a reason. Yes, there was a lot of effort that went in. I felt like it was executed pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both for Elliott, personally, and his championship Hendrick team, Sunday\u2019s results spoke not just about an important superspeedway showing but also about potential. Elliott earned the first three wins of his young career last season and following those up Sunday was a confidence boost only a trophy can fully give.<\/p>\n

Elliott is the only current member of the four-driver Hendrick team with a victory in the past two years. It\u2019s been two years since seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson earned his last win – at this week\u2019s upcoming venue in Dover, Del.  Bowman and second-year Cup driver William Byron are still looking for their first Cup win.<\/p>\n

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Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 Mountain Dew\/Little Caesar’s Chevrolet, leads the field during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 28, 2019 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Not only is Elliott\u2019s teammate Johnson the all-time winningest driver (11 victories) at the one-mile Dover International Speedway, it is where the NASCAR champion last celebrated in victory lane, two years ago. It\u2019s also a place where Elliott scored one of his three wins last season \u2013 giving the Hendrick team plenty of confidence heading forward  into the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose were certainly great wins last year,\u2019\u2019 Elliott said. \u201cI felt like any time you can win and win often is a big deal. I felt like we won pretty often in that span of a couple months last year, which was great.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still don’t think we’re winning often enough. I feel like we need to be contending more. I see some of our competitors being in contention more than we have been throughout the season. I think we can certainly do a better job.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have a win this early in the year I think is nice. And just because we won at Dover and Kansas last year doesn’t mean we’re going to go run good there, too. You know that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s going to be hit\u2011or\u2011miss. We’re going to go there, see what we have. We didn’t run good at Richmond, which was unfortunate. Had a good day today, need to ride that as best we can next week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Chase Elliott\u2019s wildly popular victory Sunday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway was a statement-maker for Chevrolet and Elliott\u2019s Hendrick Motorsports team \u2013 a not-so-subtle reminder that Chevy\u2019s bowtie brigade will have a say in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup championship, too. Elliott led teammate Alex Bowman and Chevrolet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":25428,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[500,16],"class_list":["post-25466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-chase-elliott","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/TSS1_MENCS_CheckeredFlag_042819.jpg?fit=4409%2C2939","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-6CK","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25467,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25466\/revisions\/25467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}