Chase Elliott wins Dover Cup race

Chase Elliott took the lead from Ross Chastain on a restart with 53 laps to go and went on to score his first Cup win of the season Monday at Dover Motor Speedway.

Elliott is the last of the four Hendrick Motorsports drivers to win this year. He also snapped a 26-race winless streak, dating back to last July’s victory at Road America. 

“Let’s enjoy it,” Elliott told his team on the radio after the race.

Elliott was on the inside of the front row to Chastain, who had the preferred lane on the final restart of the race. Elliott charged by Chastain when the green waved and wasn’t challenged after that, scoring his 14th career Cup win.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who entered the race 31st in the points, snapped a streak of seven consecutive finishes of 25th or worse by placing a season-best second. 

Chastain, seeking to win his third race of the year and score back-to-back victories, placed third. Truex finished 12th.

Martin Truex Jr., racing Chastain for third, made contact and spun. That allowed Christopher Bell to finish fourth and defending race winner Alex Bowman to complete the top five.

Kyle Busch led a race-high 103 laps, but misfortune struck when he pitted as the leader. Bowman, running second at the same time, also pitted with Busch. The caution came out for AJ Allmendinger’s car losing a wheel as Busch and Bowman were on pit road. That interrupted a green-flag pit cycle and several cars had yet to pit. Busch restarted 16th. Bowman restarted 17th. Busch went on to finish seventh.

STAGE 1 WINNER: Denny Hamlin

STAGE 2 WINNER: Ryan Blaney

WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s runner-up finish is his best result of the season. … Ross Chastain’s third-place finish was his series-high seventh top-five performance this