Elliott powered past Ross Chastain on a restart with 53 of 400 laps remaining to grab the lead and held off Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to win Monday’s rain-delayed race at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway.
While Elliott, the 2021 series champion, has led the series standings for six consecutive weeks, he had remained the only Hendrick Motorsports driver without a win this season.
The victory, the 11th of his career, is also his first win on an oval track since November 2020 – when he won the 2021 title at Phoenix Raceway.
“Had some good circumstances finally. Really appreciate Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and our entire team for just sticking with it,” Elliott said. “We’ve had some tough races over the last, I don’t know, four, five months.
“Just great to get back to Victory Lane, great to get Hendrick Motorsports back to Victory Lane. This one means a lot in a lot of different ways. Just appreciate all the effort. But thanks to all the fans for coming out. You’re always awesome.
“Huge thanks to everybody involved. It’s been a fun day and we’re certainly going to enjoy. Like I told them after the race, those guys, they’ve been deserving of one for a while. Glad we could get across the line first.”
Elliott is now the ninth different winner in the season’s first 11 races. Elliott took the checkered flag 2.577 seconds ahead of Stenhouse but a caution was displayed on the final lap after Chastain and Martin Truex Jr. made contact while racing for third.
Chastain ended up third, Christopher Bell fourth and Alex Bowman rounded out the top-five.
Completing the top-10 were Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher, Kevin Harvick and Erik Jones. Truex, who was running fourth on the final lap, ended up 12th.
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