Chase Elliott celebrates after winning Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama.TALLADEGA, Ala. - Chase Elliott felt right at home, embraced by fans at a track a few hours from his hometown and one where his father celebrated victory a couple of decades before.
This time it was his turn.
Elliott won Sunday's NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway, giving Chevrolet its first Cup Series victory of the season. He finished well in the clear of a race-ending crash that flipped Kyle Larson a half-dozen times.
Elliott took the lead shortly after a restart with four laps to go and worked with three other Chevy drivers to hold off the rest of the field. He won for the first time since October and went to victory lane about 150 miles from his hometown of Dawsonville, Georgia.
His father, NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, won twice at Talladega in the 1980s.
"Dad's history, obviously very cool," Elliott said. "To me the biggest piece of today was just how much of a home race it felt like after the race. I was blown away by the people and how fired up everybody was. That was an unbelievable experience. We are close to home, so that's cool, and they made me feel that way.
"I couldn't ask for much more there."
His father was back in Georgia driving in a vintage cars race. He won, too.
Alex Bowman, one of Elliott's Hendrick Motorsports teammates, finished second. He was followed by rookie Ryan Preece of JTG Daugherty Racing, Team Penske's Joey Logano and another rookie, Richard Childress Racing's Daniel Hemric. Logano was the lone Ford driver in a top five stocked with Chevy men.
It was a tough day for Toyota, with the only top-10 finish from Kyle Busch in ninth.
Elliott, who credited a meeting with all Chevy drivers for the late-race teamwork, is the sixth driver to win through 10 Cup Series races this season and locked up a playoff spot.
The race ended under caution after David Ragan hit William Byron, who tagged Larson and sent him sliding across the track. Larson's car then flipped repeatedly before coming to a stop.
"That was probably the longest flip I've ever had," Larson said. "I haven't seen a replay of it. I didn't know if it would ever stop. I knew I was flipping and was just hoping that I wasn't going to get any closer to the catch fence, so it was a little bit scary, but thankfully I'm all right."
The 2019 aerodynamics package had cars reaching higher speeds than NASCAR wanted in practice, so officials tried to slow them down with a late rules tweak. The changes made the cars go even faster, leaving many veterans wary of the closing speeds and potential for chaos and high-speed crashes. However, the race was mostly wreck-free - until the final lap.
Elliott's victory ended a seven-race winning streak for Ford at Talladega. Team Penske had won six of the past nine at the 2.66-mile tri-oval.
This time it was a Chevy celebration - for a change.
"We needed to win this," said Alan Gustafson, Elliott's crew chief. "We needed to consolidate our efforts. We needed to break the streak that one of our rivals has here."
Bowman didn't get a chance to try any last-gasp attempts to pass his teammate because of the caution.
"Well, I'm not just going to let him win, right?" Bowman said. "I've got to try. I knew I could get to his quarter panel. I was pretty confident I could get to his quarter panel in the tri-oval, and who knows who's going to get to the line first at that point. I thought I could do it, but it depends on the car behind you and where he goes. It would have been fun to try.
Next weekend the series is at Dover International Speedway, where Elliott won last year's spring race.
Martin Truex Jr.'s race essentially ended with seven laps to go. Aric Almirola turned Chris Buescher, who was working for the 10th spot, coming out of the second turn and caused a four-car wreck that included Truex and brought out a red flag. Buescher slammed into the wall and started spinning.
Matt DiBenedetto had nowhere to go and rammed into Buescher's rotating Chevy, lifting it several feet off the track. Buescher car then hit Truex and Justin Haley.
While the wrecks weren't as numerous as is often the case at Talladega, it didn't take long for the first mishap. The day's first wreck caught up Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick.
Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace tangled on the 10th lap to touch off the wreck that also caught up Denny Hamlin, who won the season-opening Daytona 500 on the circuit's other superspeedway.
Wallace went low, got sideways and then slid back across the track, slamming into Michael McDowell and causing heavy damage to both cars. Harvick, McDowell and Wallace were knocked out of the race. Hamlin joined them in the pits a short time later.
Seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson ran over a piece of debris, punctured a tire and hit the wall early in the race. The Hendrick Motorsports veteran fell several laps behind the leaders and extended his career-long winless streak to 69 races.
Formula One: Mercedes finishes 1-2 again
BAKU, Azerbaijan - Valtteri Bottas held off Lewis Hamilton before cruising to victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to continue Mercedes' dominance of the Formula One 2019 season.
It was the fourth straight one-two finish for Mercedes, the best start to a season by a two-car team in the international circuit's history. Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari were never even close to victory.
Bottas was challenged by teammate Lewis Hamilton at the start but held on to the lead after they battled through the opening two corners.
Bottas took over the season championship lead by a single point from Hamilton. The standings look much like they did from 2014 through 2016, when the title race was an all-Mercedes affair pitting Hamilton against Nico Rosberg.
Vettel wound up third as Ferrari failed to challenge Mercedes on a track widely considered to favor the Italian team.
Max Verstappen was fourth for Red Bull, while Charles Leclerc took fifth for Ferrari after a crash in qualifying left him starting eighth before he fought through the field.