After heartbreaking finishes at Darlington last week and Sunday's Coca-Cola 600, Chase Elliott finally turned his luck around with a victory at the Alsco Uniforms 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday.
"This was a tough week, for sure. That deal on Sunday night was a heartbreaker," Elliott said. "I was just waiting for the caution to come out. To be honest with you, I thought the caution was going to come out, I was going to break something or I was going to crash."
A 59-lap green flag run to the checkers provided the Hendrick Motorsports driver the advantage he needed to overtake Kevin Harvick in the closing laps. Harvick led a race-high 63 laps and seemed to have the car to beat, but his Stewart-Haas machine couldn't keep pace on the long run to the finish, ultimately coming in 10th.
Denny Hamlin powered his FedEx Toyota to a second place finish, with Ryan Blaney, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kurt Busch rounding out the Top 5.
The win capped a busy week for Elliott at America's Home For Racing. Leading with two laps to go at Sunday's Coca-Cola 600, Elliott's teammate spun, bringing out the caution and ultimately bringing the fate of the race down to pit strategy. Elliott pitted, giving up the lead and ultimately the victory.
He bounced back Tuesday night at the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, holding off a hard-charging Kyle Busch to claim victory and a $100,000 charity bounty.
Thursday's Alsco Uniforms 500 was the shortest non-qualifying Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the track's 61-year history. The win is the seventh of Elliott's Cup Series career, including last year's Bank of America ROVAL 400. At 24, Elliott joins only Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Joey Logano to earn at least seven wins before his 25th birthday.