Chase Elliott Punches Ticket to Round of Eight with Victory at Dover

Chase Elliott was able to hold off Denny Hamlin during NASCAR overtime to secure his second career victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

It was the Stewart-Haas Racing show with Kevin Harvick, Aric Almirola, Clint Bowyer, and Kurt Busch all running up front. After straight up dominating, leading 286 laps, Harvick had a tire issue after the end of stage two which surrendered the lead to Almirola. Almirola was leading as the laps wound down and all he had to do was hold off teammate Kurt Busch. A caution for debris from Ross Chastain's No. 15 at lap 338. At lap 391, Almirola's teammate Clint Bowyer plowed the outside wall in turns three and four putting out the caution.

Almirola, with four tires, would restart behind some drivers with two tires and some with no new tires. The No. 10 would attempt to take the high line and it would've worked had their been no wall on the outside. The No. 10 would come down hitting the No. 2 of Brad Keselowski which would begin the "big one" collecting Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, and Ryan Blaney. The red flag came out setting up NASCAR overtime.

Chase Elliott made the last restart work and ran away with his second victory of the 2018 season. Denny Hamlin finished the race in second while Joey Logano, Erik Jones, and Kurt Busch rounded out the top five.

Results from Dover

  1. Chase Elliott
  2. Denny Hamlin
  3. Joey Logano
  4. Erik Jons
  5. Kurt Busch
  6. Kevin Harvick
  7. Austin Dillon
  8. Kyle Busch
  9. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  10. Daniel Suarez
  11. Ryan Blaney
  12. Kyle Larson
  13. Aric Almirola
  14. Brad Keselowski
  15. Martin Truex Jr.
  16. Paul Menard
  17. Ryan Newman
  18. Jamie McMurray
  19. William Byron
  20. Matt Kenseth
  21. Regan Smith
  22. AJ Allmendinger
  23. Darrell Wallace Jr.
  24. David Ragan
  25. Chris Buescher
  26. Michael McDowell
  27. Matt DiBenedetto
  28. Alex Bowman
  29. Ty Dillon
  30. Corey LaJoie
  31. Jeffrey Earnhardt
  32. JJ Yeley
  33. Landon Cassill
  34. BJ McLeod
  35. Clint Bowyer
  36. Jimmie Johnson
  37. Ross Chastain
  38. Harrison Rhodes
  39. Timmy Hill
Chase Elliott is the only driver to punch his ticket to the next round as the Series heads to Talladega Superspeedway for the 1000Bulbs.com 500. Kevin Harvick (+68) and Kyle Busch (+63) both have solid bubbles over the cut-off line. 

Martin Truex Jr. (+36) and Joey Logano (+31) have moderate bubbles over the cut-off line. Ryan Blaney currently sits 8th with a +10 point cushion over Aric Almirola, who is the first driver out. If the Round of 12 was to begin today the drivers who would be eliminated would be Aric Almirola, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Larson, and Alex Bowman. (Koelle,2018)

Photo Credit: Brandon Wright/Brandon Wright Photography

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