MENCS: Chase Elliott holds off Truex Jr. for second win of the season

Chase Elliott held off Martin Truex Jr. to win Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen at Watkins Glen International.

Elliott lead a race-high 80 laps in route to his victory on Sunday.

Driver No. 9 successfully defended his 2018 on the road course, which saw Elliott once again go head-tohead with Martin Truex Jr. in the closing laps.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver swept every stage of the race as Truex followed, beginning with a restart with just four laps left in the second stage.

For Elliott, this is his second win of the 2019 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series season following his win at Talladega earlier this year.

“That was freaking awesome,” Elliott told NBCSN. “I’ve never been so far from and felt like i was at my house. Just stayed mistake free. Martin was a little quicker i felt like those last two runs. But the track position was king, and i didn’t mess up into (Turn) 1 this time, so that was good, so just a huge thanks to everybody that makes that happen.”

With his win on Sunday, Elliott snaps a seven-race streak of finishing outside of the top 10.

Rounding out the top five were Martin Truex Jr. in second, Denny Hamlin in third, Erik Jones in fourth and Ryan Blaney in fifth.

For Martin Truex Jr., driver No. 19 has finished in the top two in five of the last six road course races.

“I tried to do all i could,” Truex told NBCSN. “Chase did an excellent job, just not making mistakes, and really all i could do was get to two car lengths, one and a half at the closest in braking, and just try to force a mistake but he hit his marks. His car was really fast in the key areas thst you need to be, leaving a few of the key corners. I just couldn’t get a run on him and we werekind of stuck there.”

Rounding out the top ten were Matt DiBenedetto in sixth, Kevin Harvick in seventh, Kyle Larson in eighth, Brad Keselowski in ninth and Kurt Busch in tenth.

The NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series will head into Michigan International Speedway next Sunday Aug. 11 in the running of the Consumers Energy 400. Live coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. Eastern on NBCSN.

Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott

Stage 2 Winner: Chase Elliott

Race Winner: Chase Elliott

Matthew Jackson
Follow Me