By: Cathy Brown
Twitter: @TheCathyBrown @PitOutsideBox
Facebook: Pitting Outside the Box
Website: Pitting Outside the Box
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The week of racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway concluded last night with the Alsco Uniforms 500. The field was inverted from the Coca Cola 600 finishing positions one through twenty with William Byron starting on pole and teammate Alex Bowman starting second.
To date, the most exciting race Charlotte had was the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race which saw NASCAR Cup Series driver Chase Elliott win the race and beat fellow Cup Series driver Kyle Busch, winning the $100,000.00 bounty that was offered by Kevin Harvick and Marcus Lemonis.
The NASCAR XFINITY Series race was a cakewalk to Ky. Busch who easily went onto victory over the NXS regulars and the Coca Cola 600 saw Brad Keselowski finding Victory Lane for the first time in 2020.
So, with a shortened version of a Cup race (208 laps, 312 miles) measure up to the NGROTS race?
From the drop of the green flag, it was Matt DiBenedetto that took the lead on lap one as Joey Gase and Garrett Smithley got together bringing out the caution on the first lap.
The race had a competition caution on lap 20 and that’s where we saw the strategy game starting to take place as Joey Logano stayed out as most of the filed pitted.
The race went back green on lap 25, but Mother Nature would rear her ugly head and on lap 30 the cars were on pit road and the red flag was displayed due to lightning in the area.
When the race resumed with 25 to go in Stage No. 1 it was Logano and his choosing not to pit that kept him out in front, winning the first segment.
On the start of the second segment, Kevin Harvick was able to take the lead. The caution flag was back out on lap 74 – bringing the leaders to pit road.
Alex Bowman elected to stay out and like Logano – this strategy paid off for him. He was able to keep his No. 88 in front of the field – dominating Stage No. 2.
With 86 laps to go in the final stage, Bowman looked like the car to beat – until 14 laps later when he (Bowman) tagged the wall and had to come to pit road for damage.
The caution flag would fly on lap 146 and the leaders were back on pit road, with Harvick winning the race off.
Harvick would lead the field until late in the race when his car started to fall off and with 27 laps to go, Chase Elliott would put his No. 9 Kelley Blue Book Chevy out in front.
Elliott never looked back easily taking the checkered flag for his first NASCAR Cup Series win at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
He was asked what the last five laps felt like “I was just waiting for the caution to come out, to be honest with you. I thought either the caution was going to come out, I was going to break something, or I was going to crash. Just after the last couple of weeks, I just thought surely it wasn’t going to go green until the end. Just glad it did and glad we’re hopefully back on the right path.” Said Elliott.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad week at Charlotte – we saw some great racing. With Elliott winning two of the three races he participated in – making it his “own.”
The NCS and the NXS moves onto Bristol Motor Speedway this Sunday and Monday night as NASCAR has returned.
Pitting Outside the Box 