How Chase Elliott Overcame an Early Setback to Win his Maiden NASCAR Cup Series Championship

Published 11/13/2020, 12:21 AM EST

When Chase Elliott crossed the finish line in P1, he seized his maiden Cup Series championship. However, it felt like the fates were against him when his car failed pre-race inspection and he dropped to the back of the grid. Fortunately, he took it as a challenge, and the comeback was afoot.

When Elliott got into his car, he knew that everything came down to this race. Initially, at the start, he was right up front but was forced to slow down and let every car pass him.

To his credit, he took the punishment in stride, and slowly formulated a plan to regain his rightful place at the front. While the likes of Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin reported some issues, Chase Elliott had no such trouble.

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Meanwhile, a lot of drivers were complaining that it was hugely difficult to overtake. By the end of Stage 1, he was already up to 3rd place behind Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin.

Chase Elliott knew that the job was not yet finished

When Stage 2 kicked off, he bided his time until he found the opportune moment to strike and snatched the lead. From that point onwards, the 24-year-old switched from offense to defense.

The team also did a fine job of spotting for him and aiding his defense. However, Brad Keselowski was able to muscle his way past and win the second stage.

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Stage 3 began, and all 4 drivers knew that they had to pull out all the stops. However, Keselowski, Logano, and Hamlin began to report a few issues, but not a peep out of Elliott. When the final pitstops were completed, Logano found himself in the lead, with Elliott right on his heels.

With 50 laps on the scoreboard, Chase Elliott had plenty of time to kill and slowly inched towards Logano. To make matters worse for the #22 Penske driver, he was starting to get a bit loose.

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Before long, the duo was nose-to-tail, until the Hendrick Motorsports driver dove down the inside to take the lead for good. In the end, the 24-year-old won the race and the title and even got congratulated by departing teammate Jimmie Johnson.

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.