Chase Elliott scored his best career Coca-Cola 600 finish on Sunday night, finishing fourth in the Memorial Day Weekend event at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
For a while there, it looked like Chase Elliott might have his first Charlotte Motor Speedway Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win in hand in Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600.
After bouncing back from a pit road speeding penalty under a lap 48 caution, the Dawsonville, Georgia speedster worked his way back into contention.
By the end of the race’s first segment, Elliott had recovered to finish in fourth. He would stay in contention in the second segment, equaling that fourth place result.
After finishing third in the third segment, Elliott began to surge in the final 100 laps of the 400 lap race.
Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports team got the No. 9 Chevy off pit road ahead of third segment winner Martin Truex, Jr. On the restart, Elliott powered to the lead, with Truex, Jr. and Joey Logano in pursuit.
The Georgia driver would pace over the next 42 laps, all the while fending off Truex’s challenges. On lap 343, Truex finally muscled his way past to take the point.
Elliott would stay with the lead pack over the closing laps, finally coming home with a solid fourth place finish.
“We had a really solid car. It was a solid race all around,” Elliott said. “We just needed a little bit more there at the end and needed to not give up control to get to Martin (Truex, Jr.) in those last 40 to 50 laps. We just needed to finish a little stronger.
“I think I have some work to do on my end to make sure I’m keeping up with the track, giving the right information and not getting behind. I feel like I’ve made some mistakes the last couple of weeks and have just gotten a little off.”
While not a win, it does give Elliott his best career finish in the annual 600 mile race at Charlotte. His previous best was an eighth place result in 2016.
Ragan Almost Makes Gamble Pay Off
When the final caution flag of Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 flew with ten laps left to go, all of the lead lap cars followed leader Martin Truex, Jr. down pit road for fresh tires.
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The Unadilla, Georgia driver had raced in and around tenth place all night. When the caution flag flew, he and his Front Row Motorsports team decided to throw a Hail Mary and stay out to inherit the lead.
The team had worked inside the top ten all night
Things looked even better when fellow Ford driver decided to take only two tires, putting him alongside Ragan on the front row for the restart with just five laps to go.
While many thought maybe he would fade quickly or would move out of the way, Ragan had other ideas.
When the green flag flew, it was Newman – not Ragan – that spun his tires, with Ragan surging out front. As the pack raced off turn two, Ragan found himself on the outside of a four-wide stack, with Kyle Busch, Newman and Truex to his inside.
Ragan held his line and still held the lead as the four-wide pack broke up racing into turn three. Off turn four, with a shove from Joey Logano, Truex finally moved past Ragan to take the lead.
Ragan continued to battle over the final laps, trying to hold his own on old tires. In the end, Ragan finished in 15th.
“Our Select Blinds Ford Mustang was a top 10 or 12 car a lot of the night,” Ragan said. “We had some trouble on pit road and felt like I had to pass a lot of cars often throughout the night, but our team did a great job preparing a good car. That was the best mile-and-a-half car we’ve had in a long time and we just ran out of tires.
“I had some damage from that Kyle Larson wreck with about 30 or 40 to go. We used an extra set of tires and we didn’t have any. We had some with about 20 laps on it, but I felt like if I could have got a good restart I would be able to hold them off. If it would have been two or three laps, we could have got a top five or top 10, but once all the dirty air got around we just didn’t have the grip to hang on there at the end. But that was fun. It was a fun 600-mile race and we learned a few things that will hopefully help us for down the road.”
Ragan said when he was asked by Truex’s team if he was going to pull over on the restart, he wasn’t going to give up the spot.
“No, absolutely not. We were doing all we could,” Ragan said. “You never know. I mean, those guys could get back there body slamming and I could have gotten a five or 10 car length lead. You just never, never know what may happen on a deal like that. I felt like I hit my marks on the restart good. I got through turns one and two and was leading down the back straightaway and that’s all you can ask for. It helped that Newman was on two tires underneath me and he kind of held them up a little bit, but five laps was just too much.”
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