Race Results

NASCAR Cup Series

EchoPark Texas Grand Prix

Circuit of The Americas

May 23rd, 2021

Race #14 of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Season

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EchoPark Texas Grand Prix
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Laps Scheduled: 68
- Shortened to 54 laps
Miles Raced : 169.6
Time of Race : 03 Hours 07 minutes 11 seconds
Average Speed: 59.024 mph
Margin of Victory : Under caution
Cautions: 5
Caution Laps: 13
Lead Changes: 11
Cars in Race : 40
Finished On Lead Lap: 31 (78%)

Austin, Texas - May 23rd, 2021: Hall of Fame driver and TV commentator Jeff Gordon congratulates Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 Llumar Chevrolet, in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on May 23, 2021 in Austin, Texas. Photo by Chris Graythen | Getty Images

FIN	ST	Car #	Driver	Make	TOT PTS	F PTS	B PTS	PO PTS	Laps	Led	x Led	S1	S2	STUS
1	8	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	49	40	9	5	54	5	1	0	2	Running
2	2	5	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	47	35	12	0	54	4	1	4	6	Running
3	6	22	Joey Logano	Ford	44	34	10	1	54	14	1	1	0	Running
4	20	42	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	36	33	3	0	54	4	2	8	0	Running
5	7	16	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	0	0	0	0	54	0	0	0	8	Running
6	27	14	Chase Briscoe	Ford	37	31	6	0	54	0	0	7	9	Running
7	23	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	39	30	9	0	54	3	1	2	0	Running
8	12	48	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	30	29	1	0	54	3	1	0	10	Running
9	1	8	Tyler Reddick	Chevrolet	36	28	8	0	54	0	0	0	3	Running
10	4	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	39	27	12	1	54	12	1	9	1	Running
11	5	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	26	26	0	0	54	0	0	0	0	Running
12	16	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	25	25	0	0	54	0	0	0	0	Running
13	28	17	Chris Buescher	Ford	29	24	5	0	54	0	0	6	0	Running
14	19	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	23	23	0	0	54	0	0	0	0	Running
15	36	37	Ryan Preece	Chevrolet	26	22	4	0	54	2	1	0	7	Running
16	29	43	Erik Jones	Chevrolet	21	21	0	0	54	0	0	0	0	Running
17	9	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	20	20	0	0	54	0	0	0	0	Running
18	37	38	Anthony Alfredo	Ford	19	19	0	0	54	0	0	0	0	Running
19	24	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	18	18	0	0	54	0	0	0	0	Running
20	25	7	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	23	17	6	0	54	0	0	0	5	Running
21	33	96	Ty Dillon	Toyota	0	0	0	0	54	0	0	0	0	Running
22	22	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Chevrolet	15	15	0	0	54	0	0	0	0	Running
23	21	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	15	14	1	0	54	0	0	10	0	Running
24	34	6	Ryan Newman	Ford	13	13	0	0	54	0	0	0	0	Running
25	3	33	Austin Cindric	Ford	0	0	0	0	54	4	1	5	4	Running
26	26	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	11	11	0	0	54	0	0	0	0	Running
27	13	1	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	18	10	8	0	54	0	0	3	0	Running
28	38	53	Garrett Smithley	Chevrolet	0	0	0	0	54	0	0	0	0	Running
29	32	15	James Davison	Chevrolet	8	8	0	0	54	0	0	0	0	Running
30	31	52	Josh Bilicki	Ford	7	7	0	0	54	0	0	0	0	Running
31	39	78	Kyle Tilley	Ford	6	6	0	0	54	0	0	0	0	Running
32	35	51	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	0	0	0	0	53	0	0	0	0	Running
33	15	99	Daniel Suarez	Chevrolet	4	4	0	0	46	0	0	0	0	Running
34	40	0	Quin Houff	Chevrolet	3	3	0	0	38	0	0	0	0	DVP
35	17	19	Martin Truex Jr	Toyota	2	2	0	0	24	3	1	0	0	Accident
36	14	41	Cole Custer	Ford	1	1	0	0	24	0	0	0	0	Accident
37	11	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	1	1	0	0	19	0	0	0	0	Accident
38	10	20	Christopher Bell	Toyota	1	1	0	0	18	0	0	0	0	Accident
39	18	23	Bubba Wallace	Toyota	1	1	0	0	18	0	0	0	0	Accident
40	30	77	Justin Haley	Chevrolet	0	0	0	0	12	0	0	0	0	Steering

Race Infractions

EchoPark Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas

Driver	Infraction	Penalty	Lap	Lap Assessed	Flag
Aric Almirola	Pre-Race to the Rear Unapproved Adjustments	Tail End	0	0	White
Brad Keselowski	Pre-Race to the Rear Unapproved Adjustments	Tail End	0	0	White
Denny Hamlin	Pre-Race to the Rear Unapproved Adjustments	Tail End	0	0	White
Ryan Blaney	Pre-Race to the Rear Unapproved Adjustments	Tail End	0	0	White
Chris Buescher	Pre-Race to the Rear Unapproved Adjustments	Tail End	0	0	White
Erik Jones	Pre-Race to the Rear Unapproved Adjustments	Tail End	0	0	White
Daniel Suarez	Pre-Race to the Rear Unapproved Adjustments	Tail End	0	0	White
Cody Ware	Pre-Race to the Rear Unapproved Adjustments	Tail End	0	0	White
James Davison	Pre-Race to the Rear Unapproved Adjustments	Tail End	0	0	White
Chase Briscoe	Pre-Race to the Rear Unapproved Adjustments	Tail End	0	0	White
Anthony Alfredo	Pre-Race to the Rear Unapproved Adjustments	Tail End	0	0	White
Daniel Suarez	Pitting before pit road is open Garage	Tail End	7	0	Yellow
James Davison	Driving through more than 3 pit boxes On Entry	Tail End	8	9	Yellow
William Byron	Pitting before pit road is open	Tail End	14	18	Green
Cole Custer	Safety violation	Tail End	16	18	Yellow
Kevin Harvick	Pitting before pit road is open Garage	Tail End	19	0	Yellow
Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Pitting before pit road is open	Tail End	19	24	Yellow
Ryan Blaney	Pitting before pit road is open	Tail End	19	24	Yellow
James Davison	Speeding on pit road	Tail End	20	24	Yellow
William Byron	Speeding on pit road	Tail End	23	24	Yellow
Austin Dillon	Unspecified Short Cut Chicane	Pass Thru	28	30	Green
Austin Dillon	Speeding on pit road	Tail End	33	35	Yellow
Quin Houff	Car/Truck pitting out of the assigned pit box Garage	1 Lap	39	0	Green
Daniel Suarez	Speeding on pit road	Pass Thru	46	47	Green
Daniel Suarez	Car/Truck pitting out of the assigned pit box	1 Lap	46	47	Green
Kyle Tilley	Speeding on pit road	Pass Thru	49	50	Green

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Race Fast Facts

Circuit of The Americas
Inaugural EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix
Race Winner: Chase Elliott
Age: 25 Team : No. 9 - Llumar Chevrolet
Owner: Rick Hendrick
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson
Chase Elliott won the Inaugural EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix, his 12th victory in 199 Cup Series races.
This is his first victory and eighth top-10 finish in 2021. This is his first victory and first top-10 finish in one race at Circuit of The Americas.
Kyle Larson (second) posted his first top-10 finish in one race at Circuit of The Americas. It is his ninth top-10 finish in 2021.
Joey Logano (third) posted his first top-10 finish in one race at Circuit of The Americas.
Chase Briscoe (sixth) was the highest finishing rookie.
Denny Hamlin leads the point standings by 98 points over William Byron.

Race Recap

Road-course master Chase Elliott wins weather-shortened inaugural race at COTA

May 23rd, 2021

By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service

You can't call a Chase Elliott victory on a road course "unexpected," but little else was predictable in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at the Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Texas.

After all, Elliott came to COTA having won five of the previous 10 road races, and on Sunday the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix became No. 6 after NASCAR called the race 14 laps short of the scheduled finish because of excessive standing water on the track and potential danger to the drivers.

Elliott's first victory of the season and 12th of his career accounted for significant milestones. He delivered the 268th Cup win for Hendrick Motorsports, tying the organization with Petty Enterprises for most all-time.

It was also the 800th NASCAR Cup Series victory for Chevrolet.

"Yeah, man, I couldn't be more excited," said Elliott, the reigning Cup champion, who is tied for third with Rusty Wallace in all-time road course wins. "I've never won a rain race before, so it's kind of cool. Just super-proud of our team for continuing to fight.

"We kind of started the day, and we weren't very good. I just kept pushing myself and (we) made some good changes throughout the day and got to where I think we were on pace with those guys there at the end."

A week after Hendrick drivers finished 1-2-3-4 at Dover, the organization grabbed the top two spots at the 3.41-mile, 20-turn road course, with Kyle Larson running second when NASCAR red-flagged the event after 54 of a planned 68 and then called it when the rain failed to abate.

Joey Logano ran third, followed by Ross Chastain and AJ Allmendinger. Chase Briscoe, Michael McDowell, Alex Bowman, pole winner Tyler Reddick and Kyle Busch completed the top 10.

William Byron finished 11th, ending his streak of consecutive top-10 results at 11.

For all but the first few laps, drivers raced in the rain until it became too heavy to continue.

With challenging visibility on the long, high-speed backstretch, a crash on Lap 25 brought the race to a halt for the first time. Martin Truex Jr. slammed into the back of the Ford of Michael McDowell, who had slowed in traffic.

In a chain reaction, the Ford of Cole Custer plowed into the back of Truex's damaged Toyota, lifting the rear of the Camry off the pavement. Custer then hit the Armco barrier to the inside of the straight. Custer hastily exited the crippled Mustang, which had lit on fire.

NASCAR red-flagged the race and sent track dryers out to remove water from the racing surface.

"I'm all good," Custer said after a trip to the infield care center. "It didn't hurt as much as I thought it was going to be, but it's just that you can't see anything. It's pretty bad. I mean, you can't see a foot in front of your car.

"I was just rolling down the backstretch. You can't see anything. I'm just so frustrated about having our day end like this. It killed the car, and it's just really frustrating."

The cars of Custer and Truex were damaged too severely to continue. Before that wreck occurred, Kevin Harvick and Bubba Wallace already had been eliminated in a similar low-visibility crash on Lap 19.

Even before the race went green, teams were faced with a choice. With rain seemingly imminent but the track dry to start the event, would a change to slick tires be in order, or would crew chiefs opt to stay on rain tires, which NASCAR had mandated for the initial roll off pit road.

Most of the field opted for slicks, and Austin Cindric streaked to an early lead. But the rain intensified, and those who had taken the green on dry tires soon came to pit road for rain tires.

Earlier in the day, in only the second Cup qualifying session of the 2021 season, Reddick won the pole in dry conditions with a lap at 92.363 mph. The pole was the first for a Richard Childress Racing driver on a road course since Dale Earnhardt was top qualifier for the last time in his career in August 1996 at Watkins Glen.

"Road racing has been a big challenge in my career, and I've worked really hard to get better at it," said Reddick, who qualified fifth in the rain and finished eighth in Saturday's Xfinity Series race. "Running yesterday's NXS race helped me with some valuable seat time, so it's great to see all that hard work come together with a pole."