Take 5: GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway

Chase Elliott dropped the hammer Sunday afternoon for his first win at Talladega Superspeedway, then brandished a sledgehammer in Victory Lane in a symbolic nod to the Alabama track's next construction phase for its infield transformation. With Talladega's 100th race for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in the books, here are five takeaways from the GEICO 500.

ELLIOTT RULES 'DEGA: Chase Elliott had never fashioned himself as an adept superspeedway racer. His Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 entries possessed speed in the restricted horsepower format, but his previous results were a mixed bag. Now Elliott has a Talladega victory to add his father Bill's two wins and eight poles at the 2.66-mile track. "I was looking forward to coming here," said Elliott's crew chief, Alan Gustafson. "I mean, you get a little beat down after doing it for so long, not getting the results, how fickle it can be. Certainly don't want to say I wasn't looking forward to coming here. You're a bit cautious with your expectations because this place can bite you in a second."

RULES OF THE DAY: Sunday's 500-miler was conducted under new rules for restricting speeds, and the result was a setup that intensified the aerodynamic tactics. With larger spoilers and other aerodynamic baffles in place, drivers had the ability to make large runs at leading cars, frequently forming aero drafts with manufacturer allegiances in mind. That equated to 39 lead changes, the most at Talladega since the springtime race in 2014. "I think it was pretty good all the way around with each of the manufacturers doing their thing," said Kurt Busch, who drove the No. 1 Chevrolet to sixth place. "No lane seemed more effective than years past. I'd give the package a thumbs up."

BOWTIES BRING IT: A series of meetings, strategy planning and execution powered Chevrolet to its first victory of the season and a 1-2-3 sweep in the box score. The spirit of cooperation across multiple Chevy organizations helped to break up a seven-race win streak by Fords at Talladega. The challenge now is to get more drivers involved in the winning act. The last non-Chase Elliott win by a Chevrolet driver was Austin Dillon's victory in the 2018 Daytona 500.

CAREER DAYS: The collaborative spirit among Chevrolet drivers also gave three of its drivers their career-best finishes in the Monster Energy Series, with Alex Bowman taking second, Ryan Preece third and Daniel Hemric rounding out the top five. Finding the upper reaches of the Talladega scoring pylon gave the trio of 20-somethings -- all of whom ranked outside the top 20 in standings entering the race -- a needed lift. "Hopefully this is the turn of things, just to get us going in the right direction," said Hemric, a rookie in Richard Childress Racing's No. 8. "It's just an honor to go to the race track each week."

GOING ON GAUGHAN: Among the most animated drivers netting an underdog top-10 finish was part-timer Brendan Gaughan, who brought the Beard Motorsports No. 62 Chevy home in eighth place. Since 2017, the operation has solely focused on participating in the season's four superspeedway events. It's yielded a pair of top 10s: a seventh place at Daytona in July 2017 and Sunday's overachieving result. Not bad for a throwback-style team and a 43-year-old journeyman who describes himself as being on vacation. "I keep telling these guys, I don't know what their problem is," Gaughan joked. "This stuff's easy. I'm only here once every three months, and I come in with a top 10 and walk away."