CUP: Chase Elliott’s streak of consistency ends in the outside wall at Richmond
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
SCREENSHOT from USA broadcast by Steven Taranto, @STaranto92
Chase Elliott picked up the 6th last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Saturday’s Cook Out 400 at the Richmond Raceway when his #9 UniFirst Chevrolet was involved in a multi-car crash after 197 of 400 laps.
The finish, which came in Elliott’s 347th series start, was his first of the season and first in a Cup Series race since September 4, 2022 at Darlington, 106 races ago. In the Cup Series last-place rankings, it was the 36th for the #9, the 693rd from a crash, and the 877th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 62nd for the #9, the 1,428th from a crash, and the 2,008th for Chevrolet.
NASCAR’s perennial “most popular driver” has endured a turbulent couple of seasons. In 2023, an early season skiing injury sidelined him for six of the season’s first eight races, during which time relief driver Josh Berry finished a strong 2nd at this same Richmond track. He returned to the driver’s seat only to go winless and miss the Playoffs. The 2024 season saw him return to victory lane at Texas, bringing sponsor Hooters a Cup win for the first time since Alan Kulwicki’s final victory at Pocono in 1992. That also turned out to be the sponsor’s last with the team before the restaurant chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
This year, Elliott won the series’ return to Bowman Gray Stadium. He’s since scored a dramatic victory in Atlanta – his second at the reconfigured track – in what’s been heralded the best race of the season. With a 15th-place finish in the Daytona 500, he also kicked off a remarkable streak of consistency. Through the first 23 points-paying races of the season, he finished no worse than 20th and completed all but one of the laps in those races – a single lap at Bristol. That streak ended just last Sunday in Watkins Glen with a 26th-place finish, though he again finished on the lead lap.
Following the withdrawal of the NY Racing Team, which had no driver listed for their part-time #44 Chevrolet, Elliott was one of the Richmond race’s 38 entrants. He ranked just 29th in practice, his best of 56 laps at just 23.299 seconds (115.855mph). In qualifying, he jumped to 5th with a lap of 22.361 seconds (120.746mph).
Securing the 38th and final starting spot was Joey Logano, whose #22 Shell / Pennzoil Ford slammed the Turn 3 wall in practice, damaging the right-front corner of his car. The team didn’t turn a lap in qualifying, nor did they go to a backup car, and the crew set to work making repairs to the primary. Logano earned a redundant tail-end penalty for unapproved adjustments, a penalty also handed to 31st-place Todd Gilliland in the #34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford.
When the green flag dropped, Logano started to the outside of Gilliland in the final row. Logano beat Gilliland to the stripe with intervals of 3.513 seconds and 3.613, respectively, and Logano pulled to the outside of the two cars in front, putting Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.’s #47 Ram Self Storage Chevrolet in the middle and Cody Ware’s #51 Arrowhead Brass Ford to the low lane, Gilliland blocked by the three-wide battle in last place. Logano moved ahead of Stenhouse entering Turn 3 with Ware making the pass down low, letting Gilliland pull alongside Stenhouse. At the line, Gilliland remained in last, but by Turn 1 he cleared Stenhouse, who at the end of Lap 2 was 4.595 seconds back of the lead. Logano ultimately climbed to 4th at the finish, joining both his Penske Racing teammates in the Top Five.
Stenhouse held the spot until Lap 18, when contact between Jesse Love’s #33 C4 Energy Chevrolet and Riley Herbst’s #35 Monster Energy Toyota caused Herbst to snap loose, letting both Ware and Stenhouse past on his inside and dropping the #35 to last place. Herbst then caught and passed Ware on Lap 20, the two door-to-door at the stripe with intervals of 14.325 and 14.395 respectively.
With tire strategy a key element to Saturday’s race, differing pit strategies began early in Stage 1. On Lap 30, William Byron took over last place with a scheduled stop in his #24 Liberty University Chevrolet. Love took the spot on Lap 37 followed by Ty Dillon, whose #10 Sea Best Chevrolet was shown two laps down on Lap 39. On Lap 41, Ware made his stop and dropped to 37th, then took last from Dillon on Lap 43. By Lap 47, Ware was shown to laps down, but when the stops completed on Lap 58, he was one down. By then, Ware was also struggling with a car that was “super tight in the center.” When Stage 1 ended on Lap 72, he remained in last, one lap down.
During this caution, Ware talked with his crew about a pit road speeding penalty he received during Stage 1, a penalty which the team later told him saw one NASCAR official rule he was speeding while another said he didn’t. Ultimately, the penalty was not listed on the final report. As Ware prepared to back off his pit entry for his next stop, he moved ahead of new last-place runner Ty Gibbs, whose #54 SiriusXM Toyota had also been caught speeding on Lap 37, costing him a lap. Gibbs caught and passed Ware on Lap 85, by which point Ware was experiencing so much brake shake that it was messing up his entry into Turn 1.
Penalties on pit road continued to shuffle the order. On Lap 120, Corey Heim, Friday’s Truck Series winner, took the last spot in his #67 Robinhood Toyota. He’d felt like his car was losing a right-rear tire during his previous run, and had then on Lap 117 sped on pit road in Section 10. The resulting pass-through penalty put him two laps down. On Lap 128, Kyle Busch was caught speeding in Sections 1 through 10 in his #8 Rebel Bourbon Chevrolet, dropping him to last on Lap 133. Busch caught and passed Ware on Lap 135, and a lap later Ware was caught speeding for a second time in Sections 1 through 6. Gibbs briefly took the spot on Lap 138 until Ware served his penalty on Lap 140, retaking the 38th position. Over the radio, Ware was surprised he was still speeding, saying he was following the lights. The team disagreed, saying he did appear to be running fast. They also warned him to stay in second gear since shifting to third would be caught on SMT data. By Lap 178, Ware was still last, now three laps down, and Heim had lost a third lap of his own.
On Lap 181, the second caution of the night fell after contact from Daniel Suarez’ #99 Quaker State Chevrolet sent Ty Gibbs’ #54 skating into 2nd-place running Tyler Reddick, sending Reddick’s #45 Chumba Casino Toyota into a spin off Turn 4. Reddick, the Stage 1 winner, continued without serious damage and incurred a redundant tail-end penalty for pitting on a closed pit road. The race restarted on Lap 189, and two laps later, contact from John Hunter Nemechek’s #42 Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota sent Ware into a spin off Turn 2. “Lock it down, get rolling when you can,” said the team. “This thing is plowing tight now,” said the driver. Under this caution on Lap 195, Jesse Love made a stop in his #33. The crew lifted the hood, costing him three laps and dropping him to last place. He returned to the track around the Lap 197 restart, running by himself.
When the race restarted, Ware began bumping Nemechek in frustration, riding his rear bumper into the corners. Meanwhile, racing intensified at the middle of the pack. On Lap 198, Kyle Busch was stuck in the high lane off Turn 2 when he made contact with the cars to his inside – the #1 Jockey Infinite Cool Underwear Chevrolet of Ross Chastain and Brad Keselowski’s #6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford. Busch then cut left and got in the back of Chase Briscoe’s #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota. The contact sent Briscoe spinning up the track, creating a road block that caught up more than a half-dozen cars. Among these was a 22nd-place Elliott, who had been mired in the mid-pack after a vehicle interference penalty on Lap 74. When the wreck began, Elliott was running behind Justin Haley’s #7 Gainbridge Super League Chevrolet. Elliott slowed and cut to the left, avoiding Haley who plowed into the stopped Briscoe. But just as Elliott accelerated from the wreck scene, Busch’s slowed car caught Elliott’s left-rear, hooking the #9 nearly head-on into the outside wall and collecting teammate William Byron’s #24 Liberty University Chevrolet. Elliott climbed from his car under his own power, done for the night.
The view from Elliott’s onboard camera as both his and Justin Haley’s cars are towed behind the wall. (SCREENSHOT: HBO Max)
Briscoe followed Haley onto pit road, where the #7 glanced off the outside pit wall on his way to his pit stall for a tow to the garage area. Pitted just past the starting line at Stall 22, Haley completed one more lap than Elliott, who was still stranded at Turn 4, moving him one lap ahead into 37th. After two straight races where all cars that took the green flag finished under power, Elliott and Haley were the night’s only two DNFs. Nemechek took 36th, losing 11 laps in the closing stages, and Reddick’s damaged car wound up 34th, four laps down. Between the two in 35th came polesitter Ryan Preece, whose #60 Kroger / Kleenex Ford led 60 laps including the first 58.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #9 in a Cup Series race at Richmond since June 21, 1959, when Roy Tyner’s 1957 Chevrolet lost the engine after 1 lap of a 200-lap race at the track – back when it was a half-mile dirt track known as Atlanta Rural Fairgrounds. In only the fifth of the track’s 137 Cup races, Tyner started last in a field of 22.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #9-Chase Elliott / 197 laps / crash
37) #7-Justin Haley / 198 laps / crash
36) #42-John Hunter Nemechek / 389 laps / running
35) #60-Ryan Preece / 396 laps / running / led 60 laps
34) #45-Tyler Reddick / 396 laps / running / led 41 laps / won stage 1
2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Hendrick Motorsports, Kaulig Racing, Trackhouse Racing (3)
2nd) 23XI Racing, Garage 66, Legacy Motor Club, Penske Racing (2)
3rd) Front Row Motorsports, Hyak Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, NY Racing Team, RFK Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Rick Ware Racing, Spire Motorsports (1)
2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (13)
2nd) Ford (7)
3rd) Toyota (5)
2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
