Chase Elliott Wins Go Bowling at the Glen Race

Watkins Glen, N.Y. (WENY) - There was high intensity action from start to finish at Watkins Glen International for the Go Bowling at the Glen race on Sunday, as Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports pulled out his first career NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series win. 

The drivers raced like it was the last lap right from the start. Winner at WGI in 2015 and Saturday's Xfinity Series Zippo 200 winner was out of the race in lap two after an incident with Kyle Larson.

In Elliott's 99th career start, the weight of winning a Cup Series race has been lifted. Elliott says, "A lot of relief, a lot of emotion in general, but definitely relief would be one way to describe it. I've left these races pretty down over the past couple of years at times and had some great opportunities. We ran second eight times or whatever it was and the one thing I tried to beat in my head was, you don't run second eight times by luck. Take it for what it is but that's the truth, you just don't."

Not only was it Elliott's first career win, but it was the 250th for Hendrick Motorsports. Elliott says, "It's crazy how that kind of worked out, but just like I said it's satisfying more than anything. We've had multiple opportunities and I think something I tried to preach to myself was we didn't have those opportunities by accident and we were in some good positions to win in the past through hard work and people doing a good job on my team and so on. So it was nice to be in that position today and finally get it done." 

Elliott is the son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, who was his spotter for the race on Sunday. Chase has been following in his father's footsteps his whole life, and the similarities between their careers are prevalent. Bill Elliott says, "I won my first Cup Race at a road course in Riverside. The only Xfinity race I ever won was right here on a road course and then low and behold he wins his first road course. You don't think about these things until after the race." 

The win clinches Elliott a berth in the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series Playoffs.