Elliott grabbed the lead for the time on a restart with eight of the scheduled 267 laps remaining, but it was still a long road to Victory Lane.
Elliott had to fend off Denny Hamlin on a restart with two laps to go, then fought off Ross Chastain on a pair of restarts in overtime before finally securing the win when the caution came out when William Byron got into Chastain racing for second place.
The victory ended a frustratingly long winless streak by Elliott that dates to the 2022 season, a span that included missed races for a leg injury and a one-race NASCAR suspension.
With the caution out and driving to take the checkered flag, an emotional Elliott said over his team radio, “I cannot tell you, each and every one of you, how much I appreciate you for sticking with me.”
Elliott, with his 19th career wins, becomes the third different driver from Hendrick Motorsports to win in the first nine races of the 2024 season.
“Oh, man, I couldn’t feel any better,” Elliott said after the race. “Hooter’s has been a partner of ours for a number of years now. It’s been a dream of mine to pay respect to the late Alan Kulwicki. Driving this car to a victory and do a Polish victory lap – it’s just really crazy how things came full circle there in that moment. It was pretty emotional for me. He beat dad back in the day. Here we are sharing his sponsor and having an opportunity to win today.
“I couldn’t be more grateful for this journey and kind of the path that hasn’t always been fun, but certainly have enjoyed working with our guys. We’ve been working really hard and really well together. Like I said, hasn’t always been fun, but we’ve enjoyed the fight together.”
Elliott said he had not seen a replay of his race for the lead with Hamlin but didn’t believe he was responsible.
“I didn’t feel like I did anything super crazy there any more than anybody’s ever done to me. Just had to run forward. I want to look at it. I didn’t feel like I did anything to crash him. I think just the circumstances,” Elliott said. “But nonetheless, apologies to him if so.
“Couldn’t be more proud of our team. Boss (team owner Rick Hendrick), thank you for sticking with me. Really, really proud of this. Appreciate all the folks back home that have stuck with me and helped us get back on track.”
Brad Keselowski was second, Byron third, Tyler Reddick fourth and Daniel Suarez completed the top five.
Stage 1
Kyle Larson held off Christopher Bell by 0.931…
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