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Chase Elliott Holds Off Father Bill, Champion Stewart for SRX Win at Nashville

Chase Elliott made the most of his one race cameo in the 2021 SRX Series by holding off series champion Tony Stewart to win the final race of the season at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.

The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion spent most of the feature running in second position behind father Bill Elliott. On a restart with 23 laps to go, the younger Elliott got by the elder Elliott after the 1988 Cup champion rode too high into turn 1. Bill Elliott was able to recover and finish third.

“Man, it was so much fun,” Chase Elliott told CBS Sports after the race. “Man, I had a ball, got to race against two of my heroes. I got to race against Dad there throughout the race. Those are moments I’ll cherish forever.”

“I don’t know what lit a fire under him tonight but he was as aggressive as I’ve seen him in years,” Elliott said about racing with his dad Bill. “It was amazing and a lot of fun. I thought it was going to be between he and I, and I think he just got a little high into (turn) 1 and missed that restart. But other than that it was so much fun. Obviously a special number too, my late cousin Casey Elliott ran the No. 94 for years and years. Always special to run that number, and glad we could get it in victory lane.”

The championship battle wasn’t very close, due to just how large of a lead Stewart had on the rest of the field. Stewart clinched it by virtue of finishing fifth in heat one.

Bobby Labonte spent most of the night in the top four and ended up finishing there in both heats and the feature, placing fourth overall. Paul Tracy finished fifth after being involved in the final caution, after he and Marco Andretti got together in turn 1 with five laps to go. Andretti finished 11th overall.

Ernie Francis Jr. ended up sixth after coming up runner-up to Stewart in the points race. Michael Waltrip concluded the first season of SRX in seventh, Tony Kanaan finished eighth, and Helio Castroneves faded late to finish the race in ninth. Hailie Deegan, the other guest driver in this race, quietly finished 10th.

Rounding out the field was Willy T. Ribbs, the only driver not to finish the feature after spinning out late in the race.

See also
Luke Fenhaus on Runner-Up SRX Finish, Battling Motorsports Legends & Slinger Nationals

There were five cautions in the 77 lap race, two for the two incidents outlined above and three competition cautions.

Heat One

Bill Elliott won this heat after leading almost all of it. He rode away from Chase Elliott after starting on the pole, then held off his son in a side-by-side battle after the mid-heat competition caution.

Heat Two

Waltrip led the early portion of this race. but Castroneves got by the two-time Daytona 500 champion and cruised away from the field. Even after the mid-heat competition caution, Castroneves still beat Francis Jr. by 2.435 seconds.

About the author

Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021, and also formerly covered the SRX series from 2021-2023. He now covers the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and road course events in the NASCAR Cup Series.

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Carl D.

If anyone thought Stewart wasn’t going to be the series champion before the first car ever hit the track, they were living in La-La land. If anyone thinks Chase wasn’t holding back and letting Dad lead a bunch of laps last night, they are living in La-La land. It may be fun for the drivers, but I have reservations as to the legitimacy of the competition. But Hey.. I watched every race, and the ratings have been okay, so whatever…

janice

a blind person could had seen how this race/series was going to finish. bill elliott ran like crap in all the races up to Saturday night. also michael waltrip being the buffoon, who would had thought. guess if they race the series next year they’ll have dw racing. whatever.

Jeremy

I don’t think “the fix” was in equipment wise, but the only person who had a chance was Ernie Francis Jr. Helio did pretty well, and Andretti surprised me on more than one occasion. I thought Kanaan would be better on pavement than he was. Waltrip and Tracy did what they do. I didn’t know what to expect from Ribbs, as I never saw him race before the SRX series. Labonte ran about as I expected him to. Too bad Bill had a car that refused to run the first couple of races – I think he and Labonte would have run close to the same (fighting for 3rd – 5th most of the time) if Bill’s car would have run. I expected Deegan to run better at Nashville. Overall, I was entertained. I enjoyed seeing and learning about the “local heroes”, it was even better that some of them did really well.

Speaking of which… what happened to the “Local Hero” at Nashville? I think I missed why Deegan was in that car.

Echo

I didn’t watch a minute of the series. I don’t watch wrestling either.

Mike

I enjoyed it. I’m bias towards the fairgrounds speedway. Understand the conspiracy theories given years of watching the magic hand of nascar manipulate races tho.

Carl D.

Yeah it was a great venue. And at least SRX admits it’s all about having fun and not a strictly by-the-rules series.

darby

Fun race to watch. In spite of the conspiracy theories that abound here, Tony seemed to be trying all he could to pass Chase at the end.

TiminPayson

Should have had Mrs Elliot in too. Been 25 years since she was bangin drivers

darby

Interesting that NASCAR Cup champions finished in positions 1 – 4 in the SRX race Saturday night and NASCAR ignores SRX on its website, while promoting a NASCAR driver winning a modified race and a dirt race.

What is NASCAR afraid of? SRX is clearly not competition to NASCAR as a national touring series. Very peculiar indeed.

Last edited 3 years ago by darby