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Watkins Glen International Race Results

Go Bowling at The Glen

August 8th, 2021

RESULTS

START POS

FINAL STATUS

LAPS COMPLETED

LAPS LED

POINTS

PLAYOFF POINTS

1

Kyle Larson

5 |

4

Running

90

27

56

5

2

Chase Elliott

9 |

11

Running

90

0

38

0

3

Martin Truex Jr

19 |

9

Running

90

34

44

1

4

Kyle Busch

18 |

20

Running

90

0

39

0

5

Denny Hamlin

11 |

6

Running

90

6

43

0

6

William Byron

24 |

15

Running

90

0

37

0

7

Christopher Bell

20 |

7

Running

90

0

39

0

8

Kevin Harvick

4 |

5

Running

90

0

37

0

9

Chase Briscoe

14 |

27

Running

90

0

34

0

10

Tyler Reddick

8 |

13

Running

90

0

34

0

11

Matt DiBenedetto

21 |

14

Running

90

0

30

0

12

Ross Chastain

42 |

12

Running

90

0

30

0

13

Kurt Busch

1 |

17

Running

90

2

24

0

14

Ryan Blaney

12 |

3

Running

90

0

23

0

15

Austin Dillon

3 |

16

Running

90

0

24

0

16

Aric Almirola

10 |

8

Running

90

0

21

0

17

Chris Buescher

17 |

24

Running

90

0

20

0

18

Cole Custer

41 |

19

Running

90

0

19

0

19

Ricky Stenhouse Jr

47 |

18

Running

90

1

18

0

20

Alex Bowman

48 |

10

Running

90

0

21

0

21

Michael McDowell

34 |

25

Running

90

0

16

0

22

Joey Logano

22 |

2

Running

90

11

27

1

23

Bubba Wallace

23 |

26

Running

90

0

14

0

24

Corey Lajoie

7 |

29

Running

90

0

13

0

25

Ryan Newman

6 |

28

Running

89

0

12

0

26

Anthony Alfredo

38 |

31

Running

89

0

11

0

27

Erik Jones

43 |

22

Running

89

0

11

0

28

Ryan Preece

37 |

23

Running

89

0

9

0

29

Justin Haley

77 |

30

Running

89

0

0

0

30

Kyle Tilley

78 |

33

Running

89

0

7

0

31

Daniel Suarez

99 |

21

Running

88

0

6

0

32

Quin Houff

00 |

35

Running

88

0

5

0

33

Josh Bilicki

52 |

34

Running

88

0

4

0

34

Rc Enerson

15 |

37

Running

88

0

3

0

35

Brad Keselowski

2 |

1

Running

87

9

2

0

36

Garrett Smithley

53 |

32

Running

87

0

0

0

37

James Davison

51 |

36

Electrical

41

0

1

0

  • POS 1 | LEADER

    Kyle Larson

    POS1

    LEADER

    Kyle Larson

    Driver badge number 5 |

  • POS 2 | 2.430

    Chase Elliott

    POS2

    2.430

    Chase Elliott

    Driver badge number 9 |

  • POS 3 | 6.339

    Martin Truex Jr.

    POS3

    6.339

    Martin Truex Jr.

    Driver badge number 19 |

Larson holds off Elliott at Watkins Glen, grabs fifth Cup Series win of 2021

Kyle Larson had to navigate lapped traffic in the closing laps and hold off his hard-charging Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott — the track‘s most prolific winner of late — to earn the victory in Sunday‘s Go Bowling at the Glen.

But the 28-year-old Larson has been a driver to count on this season, finishing either first or second 10 times through the 23 races to date. And Sunday‘s trophy at the historic Watkins Glen International road course is Larson‘s NASCAR Cup Series-best fifth of the year, 11th of his career.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

His 2.430-second victory over Elliott was good enough to move him into a tie with Denny Hamlin for the regular-season championship with only three races remaining before the playoffs.

It marked the eighth Hendrick Motorsports victory in the last 11 races and the fourth time Larson and Elliott have finished 1-2 — the third time at a road-course event.

Larson led the final 27 laps of the 90-lap event, taking the lead for good from Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr., who had paced the field for a race-best 34 laps. Elliott got around Truex with nine laps remaining to claim second place.

Truex finished third, followed by his JGR teammates Kyle Busch and Hamlin. Hendrick driver William Byron was sixth with JGR‘s Christopher Bell, Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kevin Harvick and Chase Briscoe and Richard Childress Racing‘s Tyler Reddick rounding out the top 10.

“Chase was already catching me pretty quick, even with me being in open track so when I caught those, I think four (lapped) cars and got into the 38 (Anthony Alfredo) right here, I thought I would look at my mirror and the 9 (Elliott) would be right on me, but thankfully had a comfortable enough gap to where I could make a mistake like that,” said Larson, who apologized to Bell during his post-race interview. The two made contact racing door-to-door for second place late in the race.

“Incredible race today, hats off to Hendrick Motorsports,” Larson added. “It‘s awesome. It really just shows how good the organization is, all the people that they‘ve assembled at the race shop, all the men and women. All four of us (Hendrick drivers) could not be getting these wins like we have been without them. Thanks to them and thanks to everybody else I get to race for.”

Although Elliott, 25, had to settle for a runner-up showing, it was a stellar drive for the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion and two-time Watkins Glen winner. He started the race from the last row — and his crew chief Alan Gustafson was suspended — after his car failed pre-race technical inspection.

Elliott steadily made his way forward, picking off cars with each turn. And as with Larson, he had to navigate that lapped traffic in the closing laps, which essentially cost him any shot at getting close enough to his teammate to challenge for the lead.

“I made too many mistakes to get the win unfortunately, and made it too late in the race,” Elliott said. “Super proud of our team. Been kind of an uphill battle all day, but everybody was just super prepared coming into the day and our NAPA team just did a really good job of fighting it.”

With three races remaining to set the playoff field, Reddick gave himself a little more cushion in that 16th and final transfer position. He improved his advantage over his Richard Childress Racing teammate, 17th-place Austin Dillon, from six points entering the race to 15 points heading to Indianapolis next week.

Brad Keselowski started from the pole and led the first nine laps before spinning out of the top spot in Turn 6. He recovered, but another brake lock-up in the final stage sent his No. 2 Team Penske Ford sliding into teammate Joey Logano’s No. 22 entry on Lap 56. Keselowski kept going and finished 35th. Logano, who started second and won Stage 1, continued and finished 22nd.

The series makes its Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course debut next Sunday with the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (1 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It will mark the first time the NASCAR Cup Series has raced on the famed track‘s 2.439-mile road course since it began racing at Indianapolis in 1994.

Note: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage was clear without major issue, confirming Larson’s victory. Two cars were found with one unsecured lug nut each — the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Kyle Busch and the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford of Anthony Alfredo. According to the guidelines in the NASCAR Rule Book, those infractions should result in fines for each crew chief in next week’s penalty report.

Contributing: Staff reports