Chase Elliott during pre-race ceremonies for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. (Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)
SONOMA, Calif. — For the past several years, the art of road courses has been owned by drivers like Shane van Gisbergen, Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher. But back in the Gen-Six NASCAR stock car, Chase Elliott was the most dominant driver in the sport when it came to turning left and right.
This past weekend, Elliott showed a flare of that success once again.
From 2018 to 2021, the former NASCAR Cup Series champion won seven races on road course layouts, at tracks such as Watkins Glen International and the Daytona Road Course. Since NASCAR introduced the Next-Gen car to the sport, Elliott and his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts team have not been the same. They have run inside the top 10 and top five at times, but they have not had the punch to go out and pace the field for a good portion of any race.
That swiftly changed during the closing stages of the Toyota/Save Mart 350, when a late caution for a loose tire on the No. 51 of Cody Ware gave the No. 9 life once again to run for a win.
Elliott qualified his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the 13th position for Sunday’s race, a solid spot that the veteran driver and his team could work with. They had a chance to progressively move their way toward the front of the field to make a stand against a dominant van Gisbergen.
From the drop of the green flag, it was clear that Elliott had to make some significant changes in order to move closer to the likes of Van Gisbergen and Chase Briscoe, as the No. 9 ran around the back end of the top 10 for a majority of the first 50 laps.
With a late pit stop to flip the end of Stage 2, Elliott found himself inside the top five for the first time, but even with that track position, he was no match for van Gisbergen.
Chase Elliott (front) runs up the hills of Sonoma Raceway during the Toyota/Save Mart 350. (Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)
Elliott came down pit road on Lap 81 for his final stop of the day, solidifying his chances of making it to the finish on fuel. On Lap 96, the untimely caution from Ware gave Elliott and his Hendrick team an opportunity to go on offense for the first time in the race.
The No. 9, along with many other cars in the field, came down pit road for four fresh Goodyear tires, giving those drivers a massive advantage when it came to braking through the corners and beating other competitors into braking zones down the straightaways.
The event restarted on Lap 99, giving Elliott 11 laps to move from the 13th position to a chance at his first road course victory in four seasons. Unfortunately for Elliott, the rest of the field had other plans.
With multiple wrecks that brought out cautions in the closing laps of the race, Elliott did not have enough time to clear himself of the drivers on older tires, allowing van Gisbergen to walk away with his third win of his 2025 campaign, while the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro finished third in the running order.
“I was obviously pushing really hard. I didn’t feel like we were quite as good that run as we were the run before,” said the driver out of Dawsonville, Georgia in his post-race comments with TNT. “I don’t know if it would have been enough (to catch van Gisbergen), maybe to get Briscoe, I’m not sure about Shane.”
Elliott knew that he could get to the lead by the end of the show, but he was content with the stage call and the effort his No. 9 crew put in all day.
“Alan made a great call there to get us on offense and at least give us a shot and overall, I thought our NAPA team did a good job. We had a fast NAPA Chevy all day. Just needed a little bit to those guys, but we were right there in the mix to give ourselves a chance.”
Even with the heartbreak of defeat, Elliott and his No. 9 team are now only 14 points behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Bryon for the No. 1 spot in the regular season standings, which awards the winning driver 15 playoff points at the start of the playoffs later this fall.
Next week, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Dover Motor Speedway, a track where Elliott has run up front and won at in the past, giving the No. 9 team a fighting chance at assuming the No. 1 seed in the points standings.
