(Photo: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
By Aaron Bearden
Post-race review and analysis from the NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Who Won?
Chase Elliott. The Georgian rose to the lead on the final run and saw no cautions this time, scoring his first Cup win of 2020.
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The No. 9 Team’s Redemptive Run
For the second time in five days, Chase Elliott led with the laps winding down in a NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
This time there was no late caution.
Elliott and Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 9 team made the most of a quick opportunity for redemption, following up a heartbreaking Coca-Cola 600 loss with a victory in Thursday’s rain-delayed Alsco Uniforms 500. The win was the Georgian’s first Cup triumph of 2020, following a similar win in the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series two days earlier.
Had there not been a caution with two laps remaining in Sunday’s race, Elliott could easily have won every race he competed in on the week. Crew chief Alan Gustafson brought Elliott to pit road before NASCAR Overtime in that race, surrendering the lead and, ultimately, victory to Brad Keselowski and Team Penske.
Thursday’s triumph didn’t make up for the lost crown jewel, but it helped ease the heartache at the same track.
“We’ve had some tough losses but that deal on Sunday night (in the Coca-Cola 600) was a heart-breaker,” Elliott said. “It’s not the Coke 600 but any win in the Cup series is really hard to get. I just really appreciate everybody at Hendrick Motorsports across the street here. Everybody’s been working really hard.
“I appreciate my team. Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) made a great call there at the end to get tuned up. Luckily, the run went long and I think that fell in our favor.”
Gustafson spent the better part of the week as a conversation topic in the NASCAR world. With the benefit of hindsight, many called his decision to bring Elliott to pit road on Sunday a poor one, noting the value of track position throughout the lengthy evening of racing.
Left in a likely no-win scenario, Gustafson chose to go on the offensive. When it didn’t work out – Elliott only rose to third before bring credited with second after Jimmie Johnson failed tech – the blame fell on him for seemingly costing his driver a win.
He heard the noise, even while trying to shake it off.
“I don’t base my self-worth on other people’s opinions or if I’m doing a good job based on what other people say, but certainly I’m a human being, too, and when you get that many rocks thrown at you, it doesn’t feel great,” Gustafson said. “But yeah, it was a long couple of days, but at the end of the day, you’ve just got to look past it and move on.”
In the end it was Gustafson that got the last laugh, helping deliver his driver to a win at the same track just four days later thanks to NASCAR’s modified schedule in the wake of the COVID-19-fueled stoppage in March.
The last laps were uneasy ones for both driver and crew chief, with fears of a similar late accident or issue eliminating Elliott from contention. He’d been a threat in both of the prior two races, getting crashed by Kyle Busch while battling for second last Wednesday at Darlington Raceway before Sunday’s fateful pit call in Charlotte. Neither race had worked out in the end, leaving the young star and his team wondering what more they could have done.
“I was just waiting for the caution to come out,” Elliott said. “If the caution didn’t come out, I was thinking I was probably going to break something or I was going to crash. After the last couple weeks, surely it was going to go green until the end. Hopefully we’re back on the right path.”
In a strange twist, there was an accident at the end of the race. Michael McDowell broke loose off of Turn 4 and spun into the infield grass before coming to a brief stop in the pit lane.
But thankfully for Elliott, it came too late in the running. McDowell spun just as he was crossing the start-finish line to take the checkered flag.
That’s the way luck can go in racing, and Elliott is all too aware. That’s why he didn’t lose any faith in Gustafson over Sunday’s missed call, and why he’ll continue to trust the signal-caller to put him in contention with the pace Hendrick Motorsports has shown this season.
“I think the biggest thing is if we can continue to put ourselves in position and give ourselves chances and we do a good job at controlling the things that are in our control, that’s all we can ask for,” Elliott said. “We can’t control when a caution comes out two laps to go and you’re kind of in a lose-lose situation there.
“We’ve got to keep doing things that are in our hands and keep doing those well.”
Harvick’s Late Drop
Had the final run of Sunday’s race been 30 laps or less, it may have had a different outcome – a ‘Happy’ one.
After rising up from 16th in the opening stage, Kevin Harvick emerged as a dominant force and potential contender for the win in the middle section of Thursday’s race. Through a host of runs totaling 40 laps or less, Harvick proved capable of making quick passes and asserting himself at the front of the field.
Harvick took the lead for the first time on Lap 66 and paced nine laps. He lost the spot to Alex Bowman, but quickly regained it on Lap 126 and maintained the lead for the bulk of the next run.
When Harvick’s crew kept him in the top spot for final pit stops, the Californian looked poised to secure his second win in as many weeks. He shot out to the lead when the race’s final restart came on Lap 150 and appeared to get into a rhythm with the laps slowly winding down.
There was only one issue for Harvick – he hadn’t been tested on a long green-flag run. The final stint stretched to the equivalent of a full fuel run, stretching 21 laps further than any other run at 59 laps.
Over the course of the long run, Harvick’s car began to show weakness. His pace slowed, and Harvick lost the lead to Elliott with 28 laps remaining.
From there the 2014 Cup champ steadily dropped. He faded out of the battle for the lead, collapsed out of the top-five and nearly even fell beyond the top-10. By the time the checkered flag flew the veteran was down to 10th, well behind Elliott despite leading a race-high 63 laps.
Harvick claimed the race just didn’t play out for his No. 4 Ford’s setup.
“It just falls off after lap 30,” he said. “We knew that’s what we had with our Busch Light Ford and it went straight 60-some laps. They did a really good job turning the car around. It was the total opposite of what we raced last Sunday, so it was a good test session for us. We just didn’t need a long run.”
Midweek entertainment
Whether the races will be commercially viable beyond the pandemic remains to be seen, but NASCAR’s brief foray into midweek racing continued to gain support from drivers in its second attempt.
Looking to make up races in a limited time, NASCAR crammed four Cup Series events into the span of 11 days on the original schedule, with Tropical Depression Bertha pushing the stretch to 12 days on Thursday. In order to accommodate for the midweek races, NASCAR shot for primetime TV slots and switched up the format.
Races were quick at 500 kilometers (about 310 miles) instead of 400 or more miles. Teams had no practice or qualifying – a twist that’s affected most races in this era. Stages were shorter, adding a sense of urgency, and the fields were set by an invert from their results in Sunday’s races.
Getting a good gauge for how well the races went with the television audience will be tricky, as both attempts suffered delays due to rain. But at least a few drivers that competed rang out the format’s praises.
“NASCAR, in my opinion, has hit gold with this format,” Brad Keselowski said. “The limited practice, show up and race, and the time window that benefits both the east and west coast. No qualifying. Inversion … It’s really good because it mixes the field up and creates some good storylines there.”
Darlington Raceway midweek winner Denny Hamlin echoed Keselowski’s thoughts, noting the shorter races as a good compromise given the shifts in modern society.
“You’ve got to advance with the times,” Hamlin said. “I think keeping people’s attention span for three hours is a good thing. It’s a very good thing. These cars are different now than what they used to be. It used to be a battle of machine, you’re going to wear out your tires and your brakes and whatnot. They just don’t wear out anymore, so essentially it just becomes a long race after that.
“I certainly like the change, and on a weeknight time slot that we have, it’s got to be tightened up anyway, so I think this was a good taste of it, and they’ll gather the data and figure out what’s best for the future.”
NASCAR will have at least one more attempt at a midweek Cup race this season, with Martinsville Speedway set to host its first Cup night race on at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday, June 10. Virginia governor Ralph Northam cleared the way for NASCAR to hold to event in his Thursday update to the state’s COVID-19 response.
That race running without rain would provide a good opportunity to see an unaltered rating and get a baseline for fan interest, though it will still lack the commercial aspect of gate attendance since it’s slated to be ran without fans.
Midweek races and shorter distances could both be a part of the NASCAR schedule moving forward. So far drivers seem to be on board.
Ricky’s Return to Form
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was at his aggressive, hard-charging best in Thursday night’s Alsco Uniforms 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It helped him accomplish a feat he couldn’t manage in seven years with Roush Fenway Racing.
Stenhouse entered the year with uncertainty, taking the place of Chris Buescher at JTG-Daugherty Racing in what was essentially a swap. Roush went back to its previous relationship with Buescher, leaving Stenhouse to make the Chevrolet leap after two Xfinity Series championships, a pair of Cup wins and a lone playoff appearance across a relationship that dated back to the ARCA Menards Series in 2008.
The Mississippian rolled into 2020 quietly, seemingly getting the worse end of the deal with Roush making the decision to call up Buescher. But Stenhouse and the No. 47 team showed early promise, claiming the pole for the Daytona 500 and finishing third in the following week’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The ensuing slate of races proved rough, with two subpar runs prior to the stoppage due to COVID-19 in March. Stenhouse had an embarrassing moment when NASCAR returned, crashing out on the opening lap at Darlington. He then followed it up with finishes of 25th and 24th, seemingly losing the early promise and falling out of the playoff discussion heading into Thursday’s race.
But just as Stenhouse seemed down, something clicked in Charlotte. The 32-year-old was fast from the opening stage, rising up from 24th to contend inside of the top-10 throughout the night. He was part of an aggressive battle during the middle sector, going four-wide in a move that saw Kyle Busch get a flat tire after contact with Aric Almirola and fall out of contention.
FOUR-WIDE AT CHARLOTTE!
And issues for @KyleBusch as he and @Aric_Almirola make contact!
📺: FS1 | 📲: https://t.co/oWWAut6pxx pic.twitter.com/9WR9vmXmeg
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) May 29, 2020
Stenhouse avoided contact in the incident and marched on, rising up the grid repeatedly despite losing a few spots during pit road sequences. When the final run stretched out for 59 laps, Stenhouse methodically drove up into the top-five en route to a fourth-place finish.
“I knew we had good speed in our car from the Coca-Cola 600 the other night, we just weren’t able to put the whole race together,” Stenhouse said. “We worked really well together and I was happy with the handling the majority of the night. (Crew chief) Brian (Pattie) made some really good adjustments that allowed us to make passes and make aggressive moves to gain track position and hold it during the final green flag run.
“This is exactly the type of momentum we need heading into one of my favorite tracks – Bristol Motor Speedway – this Sunday.”
He might not know it, but Stenhouse accomplished something he hadn’t done before in the run. During his seven years in Cup with Roush, Stenhouse managed only one top-five on a 1.5-mile intermediate oval. That run came in last year’s Coca-Cola 600, where he finished fifth.
Not only did Stenhouse better his result with Thursday’s fourth-place result – he also scored his second top-five in three 1.5-mile oval starts with JTG-Daugherty Racing.
The next top-five related goal for Stenhouse would be to top his career-best mark of four in a season, achieved in both 2016 and 2017. He’ll have a good chance to earn his third this weekend at Bristol, where he has four top-fives and a best finish of second in 14 starts.
Other Notes
- Ryan Blaney led just two laps this week at Charlotte, but it wasn’t for lack of consistency or performance. Blaney finished third in both races, ending a skid of disappointing results and trailing only Elliott in average finish during the stretch.
- Another driver with quiet speed was Kurt Busch, who scored his third top-five of the year with a fifth-place effort. Busch is already halfway to the six top-fives he managed each year from 2017 through 2019.
- Denny Hamlin has never won at Charlotte, but he’s sure been close. Thursday marked his third runner-up run and 10th top-five in 29 starts at NASCAR’s home track.
- John Hunter Nemechek continues to deliver consistent results. Nemechek was the top-finishing rookie on Thursday, scoring 13th to lift his average finish above 20th at 19.8. He trails only Tyler Reddick among rookies in the point standings despite facing what would seem to be an equipment deficit at Front Row Motorsports.
- Kyle Busch was less than pleased with the move that ruined his race, equating the drivers he’d raced around to squirrels after his 29th-place finish.
- Similarly frustrated was Alex Bowman, who seemed better-positioned to beat Harvick and Elliott before snapping loose and slamming the wall off of Turn 4 while running second in the final stage. Bowman dropped to 31st as a result of the damage.
- While the result was disappointing given what it could have been, Harvick’s 10th-place effort kept his streak of top-10 results to open 2020 rolling through eight races. Harvick’s only finished outside of the top 10 once in his past 20 starts, with a 17th-place effort at Talladega Superspeedway serving as the only blemish during the stretch.
- The Team Penske crew chief shakeup doesn’t appear to have left the organization’s three teams any worse for wear. The trio of Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski have combined for three wins, each sit in the top-six in points and all finished inside of the top-10 in Thursday’s race.
