Chase Elliott wins on Daytona roadway

Chase Elliott is the new road course king of NASCAR.

Elliott recorded his third straight win on a road track on Sunday in the first race of the NASCAR Cup Series on the Daytona track track. He went on to defeat Denny Hamlin over a final three-lap run to the finish, after a caution for Kyle Busch removed Elliott’s 10-second run with less than 10 laps to go.

Hamlin came after Elliott’s bumper on the last chicane on the final lap, but was not close enough to make a pass or even try to knock Elliott out of the way.

The win is Elliott’s second of the season. He earlier won at Charlotte in May in his second chance at the track, after a pit call cost him a win in the Coca-Cola 600.

Elliott won at Watkins Glen – the track that replaced this Daytona race due to the coronavirus pandemic – in August 2019 and got a win at the Charlotte Roval in the playoffs later that season one season later. Sunday’s race was the first race track race of the 2020 season, as the June race at Sonoma was called with travel restrictions in California and NASCAR’s reluctance to send teams across the country for races.

The win also means that half of Elliott’s profits have come on roadways. He got his first of eight career wins at Watkins Glen in 2018 and has also won at Dover, Kansas and Talladega, in addition to his two wins on the track in 2019 and his two wins this season.

Martin Truex Jr. finished third after being sent to the back of the field at the start of the third stage for a pit road penalty. Jimmie Johnson was fourth, and Chris Buescher finished fifth. Kaz Grala finished a surprising seventh in his replacement appearance for Austin Dillon. Grala, who made his Cup debut, was in for Dillon, as Dillon tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in the week.

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Kyle Busch runs well, finishing 37th

You will notice that Busch caused the final caution of the race. That came after he rejoined the race six races after having a rear brake error when he ran in the top five. Busch looked like a threat to win – as a threat to get at least a top-three finish – in the final stage, but mechanical problems derailed that.

After returning to the race after repairing his team, something caused a crash in the back of Busch’s car, and he ran into the wall on the back lane.

Busch is still 100 points ahead of Johnson in 17th place in the playoff standings, so he should easily make the playoffs a disaster in the last three races of the regular season. But we are 23 races into the 2020 season and the defending cup champion has no win.

Daytona does not deliver a ton of wrecking

If you’re expecting a crash party in Sunday’s race, well, you were disappointed. The race had no practice or qualifying periods before it, so the first lap of the race was the first time drivers had to quickly navigate the Daytona roadway in their Cup cars. But it was a pretty clean race, all things considered.

There were spins, like when Busch’s car spun after the wheel jumped or when Christopher Bell sent Kevin Harvick with spiders. But the Busch crash was the only precaution for a crash in the entire race.

Daytona delivers a lot of lightning

Here’s a stunner: It rains in the afternoon in Florida during the summer. The ARCA, Xfinity and Cup Series races all started this weekend in the mid to late afternoon at Daytona. They were all exposed to lightning and rain. Only the Truck Series race, which began at noon ET, went off without weather delay.

Sunday’s weather delay delivered an abrupt end to television viewers. The race came just over after 6:30 pm ET and right when NBC’s Nightly News was set to begin. The network made the decision to cut away from the race to the news, and coverage after the race was only available on the Internet because NBC Sports Network broadcast an NHL playoff game.

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