Elliott, making his first start of the season with Hendrick’s No. 17 Chevrolet team, struggled from the start but was among a handful of teams that held a set of four new tires late into the race.
A caution for a spin by Ryan Ellis sent most teams down pit road on lap 171 of 200 but most did not have a complete set of new tires. Elliott did and with 17 laps remaining, he powered around Mayer – who was on scuff tires – to take the lead for the first time.
From there, Elliott had to navigate one more restart and fend off a fast-approaching Brandon Jones. Elliott edged him by 0.500 seconds at the checkered flag to take a win – his first in the series since 2016 and sixth of his career.
“My team did a really good job. Greg (Ives, crew chief) made a good call on the tires, and I think ultimately that was what won us the race,” Elliott said. “I felt I needed a little bit with my balance and make as much pace as (Justin Allgaier) and a couple of those other guys.
“Hats off to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. It’s super-special to win with the No. 17 on the car for the boss (Rick Hendrick) and Linda. Obviously, a great honor with the Ricky Hendrick (paint) scheme. It means a lot to all of us to be a part of this.”
Sammy Smith ended up third, Mayer was fourth and A.J. Allmendinger rounded out the top five.
Completing the top 10 were Kyle Busch, Ryan Sieg, Josh Williams, Ty Gibbs and Noah Gragson.
Stage 1
Justin Allgaier cleared Gibbs with four of 45 laps remaining and held him off by 0.932 seconds to take the Stage 1 win. Busch was third, Jones fourth and Allmendinger was fifth.
After contact with Allmendinger, Riley Herbst wrecked off Turn 2 on lap 30 and was knocked out of the race.
Stage 2
Allgaier traded the lead late in the stage with Busch but held him off by 0.995 seconds to complete a sweep of the stage victories in the race. Austin Hill was third, Mayer fourth and Sheldon Creed rounded out the top five.
Stage 3
During the break between Stages 2 and 3, most of the lead lap cars elected to pit with Allgaier first off pit road. Both Allgaier and Hill, however, were penalized for speeding and had to restart from the rear of the field.
That left Gragson – who stayed out – leading the way when the race returned to green with 103 laps remaining. Jesse Love, however, quickly powered to the front on the restart.
Just after Busch reclaimed the lead, Kyle Sieg spun off Turn 2 to bring out the caution…
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