Chase Elliott wins Nationwide Series race at Darlington

Posted on April 11, 2014 by

18-year-old rookie wins second consecutive race

RELATED: Full race results | Series standings

DARLINGTON, S.C. — There’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s barely legal.

With a banzai run in a two-lap dash to the finish of Friday night’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Darlington Raceway, 18-year-old Chase Elliott muscled his way past Elliott Sadler on the final lap to score his second straight win in his seventh start in the series.

Elliott, who restarted sixth on Lap 146, charged to the front and claimed victory in the VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 in his first event at the fabled 1.366-mile track. The victory was Elliott’s second in as many weeks and the second of his career.

Sadler, who gambled on two tires for the final restart with two laps left, held the second spot. Matt Kenseth ran third, followed by polesitter Kyle Busch and Joey Logano.

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"I knew the guys on two tires (Sadler and Kyle Larson) were going to be a little slower than the guys on four," Elliott said of the final restart. "Our lane went and Elliott (Sadler) got a little loose off (Turn) 2 and let me get to the outside, and that was where I wanted to be anyway."

Elliott won last Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, but the victory at Darlington, where his father Bill Elliott won five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, had special significance.

"Darlington has always been my favorite place to watch a race," said Chase Elliott, the youngest driver ever to win at Nationwide Series race at Darlington at 18 years, 4 months, 4 days. "Just to be a part of this race is unbelievable.

"To win this thing is a day I’ll never forget."

Elliott also is the youngest driver ever to win two NNS races, and he’s the youngest driver to lead the series points standings, a feat he accomplished for the first time last week at Texas. On Friday night, Elliott extended his points lead to 13 over Regan Smith, who recovered from a spin to finish eighth.

Elliot asserted his superiority early in the race. After restarting fourth on Lap 24, he made short work of the cars in front on him. On Lap 27, he stormed past Kevin Harvick and Kenseth into the second spot and seven laps later sped by Busch, the polesitter, for the lead.

Harvick followed into second place four laps later, and the top three — Elliott, Harvick and Busch — remained constant until NASCAR called a caution on Lap 59 for debris on the backstretch. During pit stops under the yellow, Harvick and Elliott swapped the top two positions, and Harvick led the field to green on Lap 65.

By the time they got back to the stripe, Elliott had retaken the top spot, but the green-flag run didn’t last long. On Lap 68, a wild wreck involving the Chevrolet of Dylan Kwasniewski and the Ford of Chris Buescher slowed the field for the third time.

Elliott controlled the action through two subsequent yellows but lost four positions during pit stops under caution on Lap 89 for Smith’s spin in Turn 1. Busch assumed the lead off pit road, with Kenseth, Harvick, Larson and Elliott trailing for a restart on Lap 94.

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Posted on April 11, 2014 by

Harvick earns first pole at Darlington and seventh of his Cup career

MORE: Bojangles’ Southern 500 lineup

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Aric Almirola has the record, but Kevin Harvick has the starting spot that counts most after Friday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series knockout qualifying session at Darlington Raceway.

With a lap at 183.479 mph in the five-minute third round of time trials, Harvick won the Coors Light Pole Award for Saturday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at the egg-shaped 1.366-mile track.

The pole was Harvick’s first of the season, his first at Darlington and the seventh of his career.

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Joey Logano earned the second spot with a lap of 183.049 mph and will start from the front row for the third time in eight Sprint Cup races this season. Almirola qualified third at 182.946 mph after setting a track record in the second of the three rounds.

Marcos Ambrose (182.485 mph) will start fourth Saturday night, followed by Brad Keselowski (182.059 mph) and Jamie McMurray (182.019 mph). Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch, series points leader Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Paul Menard and Martin Truex Jr. will start from positions seven through 12 on the grid.

Crew chief, Rodney Childers, himself a former driver, advised Harvick to change his racing line after the first round of time trials.

"I was on the bottom all day in practice, and Rodney felt like that, in order to get the pole, we were going to need to run the top after we ran our first run," Harvick said. "That’s the driver in him. That’s why he’s good to have sitting there watching, because he knows what’s going on.

"He can relay — and also having (spotter) Tim Fedewa up on top — as former drivers, knowing what’s going on, they can relay what you need to do. We moved up and picked up in the second (round). I felt like I didn’t roll through there fast enough. In the last one, I felt like I rolled through there pretty good."

In the first round, which pared the number of drivers eligible for the pole from 44 to 24, Menard posted a best lap at 183.946 mph, breaking Kurt Busch‘s previous track record of 181.918 mph, set May 10, 2013.

In round No. 2, Almirola one-upped Menard with a record lap at 184.145 mph on scuffed tires, despite having an electrical short in his No. 43 Ford that forced his team to push-start the car before it rolled onto the track.

"After that first session, when I tried to fire the car up, when I would go to turn the starter on and it would try to engage with the flywheel, the electrical system in the whole car would shut itself down," Almirola said.

"We obviously had a short in our starter or something, and every time we would flick the starter switch on, it would shut the electrical system down, so we had to push-start it the last two sessions. It made it interesting trying to blend on the race track."

In the second session, though, Almirola blended well enough to set the record.

Notes: Logano is the only driver to make the final round of all seven knockout qualifying sessions held so far. … David Reutimann failed to make the 43-car field. … Coming off a 43rd-place finish last Sunday at Texas — the result of an early accident — Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start 15th. … Six-time series champion Jimmie Johnson will take the green flag in 26th place after failing to advance to the second round of knockout qualifying.

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