Chase Elliott Wins XFINITY Series Race at Daytona in Dramatic Fashion

Chase Elliott was victorious on Saturday afternoon holding off a charging Joey Logano. After leading the final stint of the race, the No. 88 car had to block from the bottom of the track all the way to the top as Logano closed coming off of Turn 4.

The Daytona 500 pole-sitter led 19 laps on the afternoon, the third most of all drivers. Only running a part-time schedule for JR Motorsports, Elliott found himself in the midst of his teammates all day. With him leading the charge on the final lap he proved to himself that he can win on a restrictor plate as his previous best finish at Daytona was third last July.

“Just a fantastic Saturday to start the weekend of the Daytona 500,” Elliott said. “What a great day.

“If you’re in a position a guy behind you thinks that him going with you is going to better his position, he’s going to go with you. I don’t care who it is. That’s just the way racing is. If you can do something to help yourself, they’re going to help whoever it is in front of them.”

At age 20, Elliott becomes the youngest winner at Daytona in the XFINITY Series, beating Logano’s previous record.

Coming to one lap to go Logano found himself in fourth position, needing help to get to the front. After he got around Elliott Sadler, the No. 22 car darted to the outside of the No. 88 machine trying to secure Team Penske’s first win at Daytona.

Logano was admittedly frustrated after recording three top five finishes in his first three races of Speedweeks. Coming up just a half car length short stings, but he is looking forward to the 500. “

“Finished second again,” Logano said. “I mean, second’s not bad, but kind of sucks at the same time. Man, just so close once again. It’s been three races, I’ve been so close to winning one of them. Want to get out and make it happen.”

Cup Series regular Kasey Kahne came home in third, after trying to pick up his second victory at the superspeedway. His main reasoning for running this race was to learn for the 500-mile event and also get back into Victory Lane, something he hasn’t done since the Truck race at Charlotte last May.

Sadler came home in fourth, the best out of the XFINITY Series regulars. For the first time in a few years he now finds himself atop the championship standings, though it is just one race in it is a good start to a new chapter of his career with JR Motorsports.

He was pushing his teammate for the majority of the last 15 laps en route to the victory, but didn’t dare making a move to the outside. His plan was to push the No. 88 to Turn 4 and then make a move to the outside and try to pick up his first win at Daytona.

The end result was fourth, starting his tenure with JR Motorsports off with a bang.

“Momentum is the main thing,” Sadler said of his run at Daytona. “I’m in a great situation. A lot of people don’t know the history of Dale Jr. and Kelley (Earnhardt) and myself. We’ve known each other since we were teenagers. For our relationship to come full circle and be at this race team, to see how much effort they put into this program this winter. Showed today, three of the top four were JR Motorsports cars.”

Austin Dillon rounded out the top five on Saturday. It didn’t come without trouble as with roughly 40 laps to go the No. 2 car lost the lead draft, needing a caution to help him regain the leaders.

He got that caution with 19 laps to go when Ray Black, Jr. stopped on the backstretch.

Brandon Jones was the highest finishing rookie after finishing seventh. The No. 33 team fought all day to finally get track position toward the end as he was charging to the front as the checkered flag waved.

Blake Koch picked up his first career top-10 finish after earning a result of ninth. He and start up team Kaulig Racing both picked up its first career top 10 in their first race out, and was fast all weekend long, even making it to the final round of qualifying.

Some of the championship favorites including Justin Allgaier, Ty Dillon and Erik Jones all finished outside of the top 10 on Saturday.

Allgaier was the highest of those three drives ending the day in 12th. After starting from the pole and leading the first two laps, Dillon came home in a disappointing 13th. Throughout the weekend the No. 3 car was one of the favorites for the win.

Jones had the worst result of the three, finishing 31st. His day went south on Lap 13 after Elliott got into the rear of 1991 series champion Bobby Labonte causing a five car crash on the back straight.

Labonte in his first race back to the series since 2008 got turned into Jones, altering the finish of the two Joe Gibbs Racing cars and two of the quickest Toyotas in the field.

The XFINITY Series will return to the track next Saturday at Atlanta. Kevin Harvick is the defending winner of that race.   

Dustin Albino