Chase Elliott overcame an unfamiliar car, a difficult starting position and a treacherous track on Saturday, using fresher tires than his competition to rally to victory in the BetMGM 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The 2014 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion qualified 30th and ran in the top 10 for much of the afternoon, but a trio of caution periods in the last 30 laps bunched up the field and gave Elliott a golden opportunity. Greg Ives, Elliott's crew chief on the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, opted to forfeit an earlier advantage in favor of saving a set of new tires for the race's final 30-40 laps. Fittingly, for a race sponsored by "the King of Sportsbooks," Ives' gamble paid big dividends. Elliott was able to use the fresher rubber to turn quicker laps than his opposition, and be in front when it mattered most.
Once the race restarted for the eighth and final time on Lap 183, Elliott leaned on the newer rubber to soar past Sam Mayer -- who led a race-high 44 laps -- then he kept Brandon Jones at bay to notch his sixth career Xfinity Series win and his first since 2016.
Jones finished second with JR Motorsports teammates Sammy Smith third and Mayer fourth. A.J. Allmendinger completed the top five with Kyle Busch sixth, Ryan Sieg seventh and Josh Williams eighth. Pole winner Ty Gibbs and Noah Gragson completed the top 10.
Justin Allgaier won Stages 1 and 2, but fell from the lead after a pit-road speeding penalty, and was ultimately involved in a crash with Gibbs on Lap 177 that eliminated Allgaier's bid for victory, knocked him out of the event and left the race's defending winner 33rd at the finish.
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 17 HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET (RACE WINNER): "(Crew chief) Greg (Ives) made a really good call to get us in that spot. Sometimes, stuff like that goes your way. We ran a smart race and managed to take advantage of the set (of new tires) that we had left. ... From a feel perspective, I was kind of winging it because I hadn't been in an (Xfinity Series) car in a while. It was fun to have some different lanes and some options, and you could hit the wall and your day wasn't over. It was just a whole different vibe than what we get on Sunday."
BRANDON JONES, NO. 9 JR MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET (RUNNER-UP): "Chasing down new tires with old (tires) feels pretty dang good. I knew I was racing (Elliott) with newer tires. What an up-and-down day. Man, I can't wait to go back and watch this one over again. Talk about adversity, we had a good top-five car at the start of the race, but then the brakes went to the floor at one point. I nearly lost the brakes. I didn't think you used a lot of brake here, so I'm very thankful we got the brakes fixed on this thing and definitely saved our day. These guys worked through the problems. It was a lot of stress, having no brakes, figuring out how to dissect it and turn things around. This team has been pretty good from Daytona to here, we just haven't been getting these kinds of finishes yet."
SAMMY SMITH, NO. 8 JR MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET (THIRD PLACE): "It was tough today, I felt, with the resin (on the track surface) and the track moving around, and how hot and slick it was. It provides really good racing. I really enjoyed today. It was tough. (Elliott and I) were pretty equal on tires. We both had stickers and Brandon (Jones) had the scuffs. Brandon looked pretty good, but I definitely would've liked to have had another shot at it."
