DOVER, Del. — With Chase Elliott’s victory on Monday at Dover Motor Speedway, all four Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series teams have now won a race this season.
“Well, certainly was a goal of ours when you start out the season to get that accomplished early on,” said Hendrick Motorsports General Manager Jeff Andrews. “Really proud of the effort, especially with this new car, all that’s gone on in the off-season with this race team, to be in this position. Having five wins at this point in the season, have all four of our cars into the Playoffs at this point time is a credit to all the men and women back in Charlotte at Hendrick Motorsports, as well as everybody here at the race track that make these cars go. Give that credit to them.”
Elliott and teammates Kyle Larson, William Byron and Alex Bowman have combined to win five of the 11 races this season and Chevrolet has won seven races.
It is the first time in NASCAR history a team has had all four of its drivers win races in the opening 11 races of a season.
Elliott, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ross Chastain led a one-two-three sweep for Chevrolet drivers on Monday.
• Christopher Bell battled from behind on multiple occasions and finished fourth in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He was the best-finishing non-Chevrolet driver.
“We had an outstanding DeWalt Camry that’s for sure, just very, very frustrating to have those issues and get put behind because I feel like if we could have stayed up front we could have possibly contended for the win,” Bell said. “We were able to get back up there in that third stage, and I’ll take it. I’m really proud of this 20 group.”
• Polesitter Chris Buescher was the best-finishing Ford driver in eighth.
“It was an interesting two days. It was a good run for the Fastenal Mustang,” said the RFK Racing driver. “Everyone on the team worked really hard and did a nice job. It is a momentum builder. It isn’t all that we wanted but the pole was awesome, that was really cool. I know we had speed in it in clean air. We just fought dirty air. Unfortunately, that is a really big deal here.
“We could move around for a little bit and the tires would fall off, which is great, but once we got to the point where we had to kind of stay in line we were just sucking up dirty air which made it hard.”
• Erik Jones raced from 25th starting spot to finish 10th and earn his second consecutive top-10 finish for GMS/Petty Motorsports.
• The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team of Denny Hamlin and A.J. Allmendinger’s Kaulig Racing squads can each expect penalties this week after both cars lost wheels during Monday’s race.
• Monday’s race was slowed by 13 yellow flags for 75 laps and winner Chase Elliott covered the 400-mile distance in 3 hours, 49 minutes and 39 seconds at an average speed of 104.507 mph. Ten drivers traded the lead 17 times.
• Elliott’s win gives him a 50-point lead on Ryan Blaney in the championship as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to historic Darlington (S.C.) Raceway for Sunday’s Goodyear 400
• Toyota is set to celebrate its 1,500th race competing in NASCAR with special throwback schemes at Darlington Raceway to commemorate the milestone.
With the race being a part of NASCAR’s Official Throwback Weekend, Toyota will collaborate with Joe Gibbs Racing and Hattori Racing Enterprises to highlight milestone moments in Toyota’s NASCAR tenure.
Cup Series drivers Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell and Truck Series racers Tyler Ankrum and Chase Purdy will honor significant moments in Toyota’s NASCAR history with throwback paint schemes.