‘This is a dream’: Chase Elliott wraps 2020 season with first NASCAR Cup Series title

Chase Elliott’s first championship appearance didn’t look like his first. Elliott controlled the final 40 laps of the race after making a title-winning pass of Joey Logano, who finished in third.

The race stayed green after Elliott took the lead, and he put nearly three seconds on the rest of the field by the checkered flag. Elliott said he was “just waiting on the caution” in the final laps, referencing late-lap yellow flags that foiled him earlier this season.

It never came, and Elliott sailed to his first NASCAR Cup Series championship Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.

“All you can dream for is an opportunity and I’ve been very fortunate to have that over the years,” Elliott said on NBC after his win. The 24-year-old from Dawsonville, Georgia shared an embrace with father and NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Bill Elliott after the win.

Brad Keselowski finished in second and Denny Hamlin finished fourth.

The Championship 4 drivers dominated the top spots through the race, but it was Elliott’s car that looked fastest from the start. The No. 9 Chevrolet twice failed pre-race inspection to force Elliott to the back of the field, but he raced up to third place within the first 50 laps.

Jimmie Johnson said he reminded Elliott before the race that he was in the same situation in 2016, starting from back, and still won a title that season.

The afternoon also marked Johnson’s final start in his final full-time NASCAR season, closing a storied career in which the Hendrick Motorsports driver won seven Cup Series championships. When asked what he would remember most about the day, Johnson’s response had nothing to do with the ceremony around his exit.

“Chase Elliott won his first championship,” Johnson said.

He drove by Elliott’s car after the race to congratulate his teammate in a moment that served as a symbolic passing of the torch between the title-winning Hendrick Motorsports drivers.

“To share a moment like that in Jimmie’s last race and to win and to lock the championship, those are moments you can only dream of,” Elliott said. “This is a dream. I’m just hoping I don’t ever wake up.”

While Elliott looked confident, the race was no sweep. Logano led 125 laps of the 312-lap race, the second-most to Elliott’s 153. The No. 22 Penske driver won the first stage but struggled with vibration in the second stage and lost pace. He was passed by teammate Keselowski for the second-place spot just before the checkered flag.

“It definitely stings,” Logano said. “I told the guys before the race started, I said, ‘In these races when you get to the Championship 4, you can’t lose. You either win or you become stronger.’ Unfortunately we got stronger today.”

Keselowski edged ahead of Elliott for a Stage 2 win, but slow pit stops cost him positions multiple times throughout the day. He said he hadn’t yet reviewed the stops after the race, but wanted to focus on the positives from the season.

“My team brought a great car and we ran a hell of a race,” Keselowski said. “Won Stage 2 and made a convincing case that we probably could have won the race today, but it just didn’t come together with the track position.”

While the Fords challenged Elliott for the top spot, Hamlin’s car lacked the speed he needed to be a significant threat. He noted that Penske and Hendrick both had two teammates inside the top 10, while he only had one. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. finished in 10th, with no other Toyotas besides him and Hamlin in the top 10.

“Our organization has got to get a little bit better on these types of tracks,” Hamlin said, “especially if it’s going to be the deciding factor in the championship.”

Hamlin said he knew around lap 200 that it would take “some special circumstances” for the team to contend for first place.

The race ended in very un-2020-like fashion. It was a clean event, with only one yellow flag for incident in Stage 2. Logano said he was hoping for a late-race caution, as there had been in the Trucks and Xfinity Series finals at Phoenix.

“I wanted to come down pit road one more time and see if we could come out in front and get a win, but it was not in the cards today,” Logano said. “Overall, I’d say that the racing was good.”

The racing was particularly good for Elliott. He capitalized on fast equipment to earn his fifth win of the season and 11th in his Cup career. Elliott secured his spot in the championship finale with a clutch win at Martinsville in the final Round of 8 race.

He didn’t slow down in Phoenix.

NASCAR at Phoenix race results

NASCAR champions by year

2010: Jimmie Johnson

2011: Tony Stewart

2012: Brad Keselowski

2013: Jimmie Johnson

2014: Kevin Harvick

2015: Kyle Busch

2016: Jimmie Johnson

2017: Martin Truex Jr.

2018: Joey Logano

2019: Kyle Busch

2020: Chase Elliott

This story was originally published November 8, 2020 at 6:11 PM.

Alexandra Andrejev

The Charlotte Observer

NASCAR and Charlotte FC beat reporter Alex Andrejev joined The Observer in January 2020 following an internship at The Washington Post. She is a two-time APSE award winner for her NASCAR beat coverage and National Motorsports Press Association award winner. She is the host of McClatchy’s podcast “Payback” about women’s soccer. Support my work with a digital subscription