Featured Latest News NASCAR NASCAR Xfinity Series

Chase Elliott Capitalizes On Late Restart, Wins At Charlotte On Fresh Tires

by Hunter Thomas May 25, 2024 1 comment

CONCORD, N.C. – Pulling double duty this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott held off Brandon Jones to win the BetMGM 300.

With a fresh set of Goodyear tires, Elliott took over the lead on the final restart of the day with less than 20 laps to go and was able to hold a hard charging Jones at bay to earn his sixth-career NASCAR Xfinity Series race. The last time Elliott had visited Victory Lane in the series was back in 2016, when he won at Daytona International Speedway. Saturday’s victory was impressive as he drove from a 30^th starting position.

“(Crew chief) Greg (Ives) made a really good call to get us in that spot,” Elliott said. “Sometimes, stuff like that goes your way. We ran a smart race and managed to take advantage of the set (of new tires) that we had left. … From a feel perspective, I was kind of winging it because I hadn’t been in an (Xfinity Series) car in a while. It was fun to have some different lanes and some options, and you could hit the wall and your day wasn’t over. It was just a whole different vibe than what we get on Sunday.”

The runner-up finish on Saturday was Jones’ first top-five of the 2024 season. The driver of the JR Motorsports No. 9 Menards/CharBroil Chevrolet rebounded from a brake issue to capture his best finish since September of last year.

“Chasing down new tires with old (tires) feels pretty dang good,” Jones said. “I knew I was racing (Elliott) with newer tires. What an up-and-down day. Man, I can’t wait to go back and watch this one over again. Talk about adversity, we had a good top-five car at the start of the race, but then the brakes went to the floor at one point. I nearly lost the brakes. I didn’t think you used a lot of brake here, so I’m very thankful we got the brakes fixed on this thing and definitely saved our day. These guys worked through the problems.”

JR Motorsports Sammy Smith and Sam Mayer finished fourth and fifth respectively. AJ Allmendinger finished fifth, followed by Kyle Busch, Ryan Sieg, Josh Williams, Ty Gibbs and Noah Gragson.

Justin Allgaier swept Stages 1 and 2, but he was caught up in an accident on Lap 177 and finished a disappointing 33^rd.

There were 23 lead changes among nine drivers. Mayer led a race high of 44 laps.

The caution flew on eight occasions for 45 laps.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series will visit Portland International Raceway on Saturday, June 1 for the Pacific Office Automation 147. Live coverage will broadcast on FS1 at 4:30 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Mitchell White/TheFourthTurn.com