Race report

NASCAR Cup Watkins Glen

Chase Elliott tops Truex at Watkins Glen for second straight year

It’s déjà vu all over again with Chase Elliott out-dueling Martin Truex Jr. for another victory at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.

Jim Utter

Edited: Aug 5, 2019, 3:15 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Race Winner Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Camaro

In almost an exact replay of a year ago, Elliot deftly held off a furious charge from Truex, answering every challenge over the final 50-lap final stage.

The win is Elliott’s second of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season and fifth of his career – all coming in the last 12 months.

"This is wild. Thank you guys, that was pretty awesome. I've never been so far from home and thought I was at my house," Elliott said to the cheers from the fans. "Thank you. What a day.

"We had such a bad fast Camaro and we stayed mistake-free. Martin was a little quicker those last two runs but track position was king and I didn't mess up in (Turn) 1 this time, so that was good.

"I just want to thank everyone that makes this happen. Mr. (Rick) Hendrick is here today and just a lot of people that have obviously gotten me to this point. I wish my mom and my grandmother were here today but I can't wait to see you guys - love you!

"Sorry I ran out of gas again! You guys are awesome."

Denny Hamlin finished third, Erik Jones fourth and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top-five.

Rounding out the top-10 were Matt DiBenedetto, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch.

Read Also:

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, some drivers pit but Elliott remained on the track and in the lead when the race returned to green on Lap 44.

Truex stayed close to Elliott on the restart as he tried to catch the leader in a battle that was reminiscent of last year’s race.

By Lap 48, Elliott had been able to sustain a small lead over Truex but couldn’t pull away like he had earlier in the race.

With 40 lap remaining in the race, Elliott had built almost a 1-second lead over Truex with Harvick in third, more than 6 seconds behind the leader.

Ryan Newman ran off course in Turn 5 and suffered a flat right-front tire, but was able to limp around the track and back to pit road.

On Lap 53, Daniel Hemric spun off the inner loop and suffered a lot of damage to his No. 8 Chevrolet but was able to continue on to pit road.

After 55 laps, Truex had closed to Elliott’s rear bumper again to challenge for the lead. Harvick remained in third, more than 9 seconds behind the lead.

Harvick was the first to make his final pit stop on Lap 58 as the window opened for drivers to make it to the end of the race on fuel.

Several more drivers followed down pit road on Lap 59, including Clint Bowyer, Keselowski and Aric Almirola.

Elliott elected to pit on Lap 60 which allowed Truex to move into the lead for the first time in the race. Truex pit one lap later.

On Lap 62, caution was displayed after Jimmie Johnson severely damaged his No. 48 Chevrolet and did damage to the retaining wall.

At the same time, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Busch hit each other several times on the frontstretch with Wallace finally turning Busch into Turn 1.

Paul Menard, who had been leading, made his pit stop under the caution which put Elliott back in the lead on the restart on Lap 66. He was followed by Truex, Hamlin, Harvick and Jones. Kyle Busch lined up 35th.

On Lap 68, Elliott was concerned he may have a left-rear tire going down and his team was attempting to visually inspect the tire. He continued to maintain a lead over Truex.

With 20 laps remaining, Elliott held a small lead over Truex with Hamlin in third. They were followed by Jones and Harvick.

After 75 laps, Elliott’s lead over Truex hovered around sixth-tenths of a second. Hamlin remained in third, Jones fourth and Blaney had moved up to fifth.

Truex was growing frustrated trying to catch Elliott. “I’m just stuck right here,” he said over his team radio.

With 10 laps to go, Truex had closed again to Elliott’s rear bumper but still couldn’t get close enough to attempt a pass for the lead. Hamlin was third, more than 6 seconds behind the leader.

With five laps remaining, Truex had again closed to Elliott’s rear bumper to challenge for the lead.

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Laps Led 1 9 United States Chase Elliott Chevrolet 90 80 2 19 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 90 0.454 1 3 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 90 11.229 4 20 Erik Jones Toyota 90 12.403 5 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 90 19.092 6 95 Matt DiBenedetto Toyota 90 22.632 7 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 90 23.705 8 42 United States Kyle Larson Chevrolet 90 24.743 6 9 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 90 27.441 10 1 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 90 27.736 11 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 90 28.177 12 10 Aric Almirola Ford 90 31.548 13 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 90 32.058 14 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 90 33.695 15 17 United States Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 90 36.644 16 34 Michael McDowell Ford 90 37.588 17 41 Mexico Daniel Suarez Ford 90 37.900 18 21 Paul Menard Ford 90 39.382 3 19 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 90 40.846 20 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 90 44.367 21 24 United States William Byron Chevrolet 90 50.828 22 38 David Ragan Ford 90 52.448 23 22 Joey Logano Ford 90 54.172 24 36 Matt Tifft Ford 90 54.256 25 6 Ryan Newman Ford 90 56.825 26 96 Parker Kligerman Toyota 90 57.208 27 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 90 58.603 28 43 United States Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 90 1'08.161 29 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 90 1'08.480 30 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 89 1 lap 31 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 89 1 lap 32 52 Josh Bilicki Chevrolet 89 1 lap 33 51 Cody Ware Chevrolet 89 1 lap 34 32 United States Corey Lajoie Ford 85 5 laps 35 8 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 84 6 laps 36 47 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 72 18 laps 37 77 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 65 25 laps

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Chase Elliott wins Stage 2 under caution at Watkins Glen

Next article Truex: "Wish we could have been just a tiny bit better"

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

3 h

TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale

Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role

NASCAR Truck

NSTR NASCAR Truck

Homestead

4 h

Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role

The surprising convergence behind F1's increasingly competitive 2026 season

Formula 1

The surprising convergence behind F1's increasingly competitive 2026 season

“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 8 h

“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts