Larson takes advantage of late restart for first Cup victory

For anyone who watched Elliott’s father dominate at MIS in the 1980s, Sunday’s race stirred up more than a few memories of Awesome Bill from Dawsonville, Georgia. Bill leads all NASCAR Cup drivers in miles completed at the track (22,424), starts (61), and he is the only driver to win four consecutive Cup races at MIS when he swept both races in 1985 and 1986 for auto owner the late Harry Melling. Bill drove for Melling Racing for all seven wins, representing Jackson business owner Harry Melling. Based on fan response during driver introductions, Chase is one of the favorites at MIS today like his dad. “He definitely had a lot of success here”.

“They were on their game many a day, here”, Chase said. “On long runs, we were maybe the best vehicle. I wish we could’ve capitalized and (started catching) up to that number of his, but we didn’t”. It was the youngest podium finish in NASCAR Sprint Cup history. The top-five cars plus any other cars chosen by NASCAR also go through it after the race.

Elliott led from laps 169 through 190 and looked poised to grab his first career win before a late caution for debris changed his fate. Chase’s pit crew helped the No. 24 bypass the eventual race victor Kyle Larson on the final pit stop. “I hate it for them more than I do for me”, Chase said. We were strong I felt like as a company today, which was encouraging.

“For sure I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t”, Elliott said when asked if he were disappointed. They got us the lead back. “Seems like every time we come here, we want to win so bad, we run third or fourth every time, which is really good in the Sprint Cup Series, but it’s certainly not the win we’re looking for”.

There are two races left in the regular season and Elliott now holds a 27-point advantage over Ryan Newman in the final transfer position for the Chase.

“(I) just have to try to take the positives out of it”, Chase said.