Take 5: Chase Elliott wins, tempers flare at Watkins Glen

Another idyllic Sunday at Watkins Glen International had parallels to the same movie that showed here last season: Chase Elliott holding off runner-up Martin Truex Jr. over the homestretch. Several other wrinkles emerged, including short-track-style tempers that erupted at several points on the 2.45-mile road course. With plenty to unpack, here are five topics with staying power from the Go Bowling at The Glen.

SLUMP SALVATION: Chase Elliott had already locked up a playoff berth with a win in April at Talladega Superspeedway, but his second victory of the season had a galvanizing effect, helping to steady a ship that had been listing. Elliott's No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports outfit had sagged with finishes of 20th or worse in five of the last seven races. Sunday's effort stopped the skid. "That's the biggest thing I wanted to do this weekend is perform to the potential to the team and the car and get back on track, and certainly we did that in style, which was fantastic," said No. 9 crew chief Alan Gustafson. "But yeah, we needed to get out of that rut to get back on track and get focused on competing and improving and get some confidence back."

STUDENTS VS. TEACHER: Kyle Busch's fingerprints are on the racing careers of William Byron and Bubba Wallace, two drivers who spent time under his tutelage at Kyle Busch Motorsports and won multiple Gander Trucks events for their then-team owner. How the times have changed. Those fingerprints are now dents in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 after two retaliation-laced bumping contests with his former pupils transformed Busch from a pre-race favorite into an 11th-place finisher. Busch has made a habit of grooming young talent until it was their time to leave the nest. Sunday, they became birds of prey.

PAYBACK APPROVAL: The Kyle Busch-William Byron dispute had multiple rounds in Stage 1 alone, with Byron attempting to exact revenge under orders from crew chief Chad Knaus, a directive that resulted in a damaged No. 24 Chevrolet. Team owner Rick Hendrick found out about Knaus' instructions later, but said if he were in a similar position, he'd advocate for Byron defending himself as well. "Well, I think you have to stand your ground in this sport," Hendrick said. "If you let people push you around, they're going to push you around. He's running up front, so I think this was his eighth front row start, and he's learning. ... I think probably in hindsight he would not have messed with Kyle and would have had a chance to have a really good finish with a good car."

DANIELS' DAY: Cliff Daniels, the new crew chief for Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet, had a plenty eventful debut. Johnson's drive was derailed after contact with Ryan Blaney's car and later the retaining wall two-thirds of the way through the race. Daniels kept the team's composure intact and tried to offset the perils of road-course racing with a strategy on gathering stage points. But Daniels also took time to savor his big break. "It was cool to take in the moment, walking down pit road the first time," Daniels said. "Naturally, there's always butterflies before you start any race, so that was exciting. Obviously, I'm grateful for the opportunity and hoping to make everybody proud and make the most of it."

DiBENEDETTO'S DASH: Matt DiBenedetto's job status for 2020 has come under some speculation, with NBC Sports reporting that Leavine Family Racing -- a Joe Gibbs Racing affiliate -- has not yet picked up its option for next season. So a solid sixth-place performance Sunday -- his fourth top 10 in the last seven races -- arrived with an open embrace. "It was cool and it's always so satisfying on these road courses for us to inch our way forward and pass some guys," DiBenedetto said. "I wish we could have started a little further forward. I know we could have run a little bit better, but that's fine. It's fun to get so much support from all our team, Toyota, JGR and Procore. I just hope I can be a part of this for a long time to come."