Who won the NASCAR race yesterday? Full results for Thursday's Alsco Uniforms 500 at Charlotte
by Tom GattoThe rain held off long enough Thursday for NASCAR to complete the second midweek race of itsrevised 2020 Cup Series schedule, the Alsco Uniforms 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Even then, there was a 74-minute red flag for lightning near the track. The good news for NASCAR was that the bad weather moved away quickly and the race was scheduled for 311 miles (500 kilometers), so it finished shortly after 11 p.m. ET.
MORE: Highlights from the Alsco Uniforms 500
And when it was over, Chase Elliott, at long last, had his first win of the season.
He thought he was about to snagit Sunday night in the Coca-Cola 600 but a late caution and pit strategy conspired to keep him out of victory lane. He was poised to run down Denny Hamlin at Darlington last week, only to be wrecked by Kyle Busch.
"We've had some tough losses, but that deal on Sunday night was a heartbreaker," Elliott said in his postrace interview with FS1's Vince Welch. "It's not the Coke 600 but any win in the Cup Series is really hard to get."
The race was initially supposed to be run Wednesday night, but rain forced it to be postponed a day. There were afternoon showers in the Charlotte, N.C., area Thursdayas well, but they did not affect the race's start. A first-lap crash and then the red flag early in the first stage did, however.
Who won the Alsco Uniforms 500?
Chase Elliott took the lead from Kevin Harvick with 28 laps to go and then pulled away for his first victory of the Cup Series season.
Elliott said he wasn't taking anything for granted even as he increased his lead to more than twoseconds in the final five laps.
"I was just waiting for the caution to come out, to be honest with you," Elliott said. "I thought either the caution was going to come out, I was going to break something or I was going to crash. Just after the last couple of weeks, I didn't think, truly, it was going to go green to the end. I'm just glad it did and glad we're, hopefully, back on the right path."
The win puts Elliott in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs for the fifth year in a row. He has qualified for the Chase for the Cup/playoffs every season he has raced full time in the series.
Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kurt Busch rounded out the top five.
NASCAR at Charlotte results
| Finish | (Start) | Driver | Car | Laps |
| 1. | (19) | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 208 |
| 2. | (29) | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 208 |
| 3. | (18) | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 208 |
| 4. | (24) | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Chevrolet | 208 |
| 5. | (14) | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | 208 |
| 6. | (8) | Joey Logano | Ford | 208 |
| 7. | (20) | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 208 |
| 8. | (7) | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 208 |
| 9. | (15) | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 208 |
| 10. | (16) | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 208 |
| 11. | (40) | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 208 |
| 12. | (1) | William Byron | Chevrolet | 208 |
| 13. | (5) | John Hunter Nemechek # | Ford | 208 |
| 14. | (13) | Tyler Reddick # | Chevrolet | 208 |
| 15. | (4) | Matt DiBenedetto | Ford | 208 |
| 16. | (39) | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 208 |
| 17. | (27) | Ryan Newman | Ford | 208 |
| 18. | (9) | Cole Custer # | Ford | 208 |
| 19. | (23) | Corey LaJoie | Ford | 208 |
| 20. | (6) | Aric Almirola | Ford | 208 |
| 21. | (12) | Christopher Bell # | Toyota | 208 |
| 22. | (11) | Chris Buescher | Ford | 208 |
| 23. | (26) | Matt Kenseth | Chevrolet | 207 |
| 24. | (22) | Ryan Preece | Chevrolet | 207 |
| 25. | (3) | Michael McDowell | Ford | 207 |
| 26. | (10) | Erik Jones | Toyota | 207 |
| 27. | (25) | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 207 |
| 28. | (28) | Daniel Suarez | Toyota | 207 |
| 29. | (17) | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 207 |
| 30. | (31) | Gray Gaulding | Ford | 206 |
| 31. | (2) | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 206 |
| 32. | (35) | Quin Houff # | Chevrolet | 205 |
| 33. | (34) | Timmy Hill(i) | Toyota | 205 |
| 34. | (21) | J.J. Yeley(i) | Chevrolet | 204 |
| 35. | (32) | BJ McLeod(i) | Ford | 203 |
| 36. | (37) | Josh Bilicki(i) | Chevrolet | 200 |
| 37. | (38) | Bubba Wallace | Chevrolet | 165 |
| 38. | (30) | Brennan Poole # | Chevrolet | 86 |
| 39. | (36) | Joey Gase(i) | Ford | 8 |
| 40. | (33) | Garrett Smithley(i) | Chevrolet | 0 |
# Rookie.
(i) Ineligible for series points.
Average speed of race winner: 125.315 mph.
Time of race:2 hours, 29 minutes, 23 seconds.
Margin of victory:2.208 seconds.
Caution flags:7for 37 laps.
Lead changes:15among 8 drivers.
Lap leaders:WilliamByron 0; MattDiBenedetto 1-9; WilliamByron 10; MattDiBenedetto 11; WilliamByron 12-21; JoeyLogano 22-23; MichaelMcDowell 24; Joey Logano 25-57; RyanBlaney 58; JoeyLogano 59-65; KevinHarvick 66-74; AlexBowman 75-125; KevinHarvick 126-145; RyanBlaney 146; KevinHarvick 147-180; ChaseElliott 181-208.
Leaders summary (driver, times, lead laps led):Kevin Harvick 3 times for 63 laps; Alex Bowman 1 time for 51 laps; Joey Logano 3 times for 42 laps; Chase Elliott 1 time for 28 laps; William Byron 2 times for 11 laps; Matt DiBenedetto 2 times for 10 laps; Ryan Blaney 2 times for 2 laps; Michael McDowell 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage 1 Top 10: 22,12,21,4,88,47,3,1,9,17.
Stage 2 Top 10: 88,12,22,9,4,1,3,38,95,43.
Material from the NASCAR Wire Service was used in this report.