![Chase Elliott in victory lane at Road America. [Dave Jensen Photo]](https://racingnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/210704RAVLDSC_3572-4_compressed-1024x615.jpg)
Chase Elliott in victory lane at Road America. [Dave Jensen Photo]
by Paul Gohde
Elkhart Lake, WI – Back in 2020 most of the NASCAR Cup Series drivers were surprised at the number of road courses that appeared on the upcoming 2021 schedule. But each of them also expressed enthusiasm for the upcoming July 4th race at legendary Road America. And their enthusiasm was evident today as a record crowd (some say 100,000) shared the excitement of the drivers, cheering long and loud as Chase Elliott held off a plethora of challengers to stake his claim as the first NASCAR Cup winner here in the past 65 years by winning the Inaugural Jockey Made In America 250 for his 13th NASCAR Cup Series victory.
At times it was Kyle Busch chasing Elliott and at others it was Christopher Bell, but no matter who it was, Elliott was up for the battle. “We started in 34th spot and had to pick our way carefully to the front,” explained Elliott who has won seven of the last eight NASCAR road races. “We got hung up in qualifying when a red flag stopped us from bettering our slow lap and were stuck with starting near the back.” But knowing he had a long day of racing ahead of him, he took his time, taking the lead on lap 38 and held serve (except for one lap) until the checkered, stretching that winning margin to 5.705 sec.
“We struggled yesterday and just couldn’t find any rhythm, but about half-way through the race we got a flow going and got onto the same (pit) strategy as the leaders. The crew made the right adjustments, and I knew we had 62 laps to make it right,” he said. “Drivers are only as good as what they have to drive.”
Busch, who also had qualifying problems, starting last due to having to switch to a back-up car, surprisingly took his time also, taking his first lead at lap 24, but lead just four circuits while mixing it up with his challengers. He finished third.
“I thought we could come back and challenge for the lead in the third stage, but we didn’t have enough. The #9 car was exceptional. I ran hard to put pressure on him but wore out our stuff, (mainly tires). It would have been nice if I hadn’t wrecked my primary car in practice,” he added.
Christopher Bell was another challenger who worked his way near the front (finishing second) from his starting spot of 13th. “We had a really, really great car. The car came alive and we had a good finish. We haven’t been fast the last few weeks.”
Kyle Larson was also strong in his charge to the front, but the series’ points leader was stymied when a traffic jam in Turn 5 with five laps remaining saw Denny Hamlin spin Larson’s Hendrick Cars Chevrolet out, relegating him to a 16th place finish.
Kurt Busch, the “other brother”, also took his time and despite his16th starting spot, he almost caught his brother who finished third. He was pleased with his run but seemed to know where he was destined to finish. “We had a good battle as we were moving up near the end. We were looking for stage points and that was good.”
Pole-winner William Byron and Tyler Reddick were stage winners, while Reddick finished a solid 8th, Byron fell to a 33rd place finish.
The race was as much a Fan Fest as it was a NASCAR race, Fans packed every nook and cranny of the vast Road America facility, coming early for a good spot to watch and staying late to cheer Elliot’s many victory burnouts and congregate for his winner’s interview. “I heard people chanting my name and saw so many of them with #9 shirts and hats. It was amazing,
“You have to enjoy these moments because you never know when they’ll come up again. I was really struck by how many people they had here today and how very enthusiastic they were, not just for me, but for the whole weekend.”
Perhaps Road America President and GM Mike Kertscher summed it up best in a letter that he wrote to fans in the event program when he advised them “to come for the experience and stay for the race.”
They did and they will again next year I’m sure.
Notes: Road America Communications Director John Ewert confirmed Saturday that NASCAR Cup and Xfinity racing will continue at the Wisconsin track in 2022 and beyond as a multi-year agreement has been signed with the sanctioning body. Choosing a weekend date is the only remaining item that needs to be finalized pending the completion of the series’ schedule for next season…Kyle Busch was forced to bring out the Joe Gibbs #18 Skittles back-up Toyota after crashing his primary mount in Cup practice Saturday morning. “The car is killed,” he muttered afterward. He will have to start in the back for the Jockey Made In America 250 Sunday no matter what time he posts in Sunday’s qualifying…A member of the Chicago-area racing media reported that the grandstand at Chicago Motor Speedway in Joliet is being torn down along with the drag strip. If true, another venue for Midwest motorsports will have fallen by the wayside…What today is the NASCAR Cup Series has only raced at Road America once since it opened and that was in 1956. Thus, the track record that Cup drivers were shooting at in today’s qualifying was a slow 73.858 mph set on August 8, 1956 by Tim Flock. By contrast, today’s pole winner, William Byron, ran 110.359 mph. Quite a difference in 65 years…18-year-old Sam Mayer recovered from a hard Xfinity Series crash Saturday to win the TA2 round of the Trans Am Championship race later that day. Several Cup/Xfinity drivers participated in that race as well in order to log track time and learn the nuances of Road America. That group included Ty and Austin Dillon, Ryan Newman and Christopher Bell. Also, Ryan Herbst, Harrison Burton, Ty Gibbs and Adam Andretti…
Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.
Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.
The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.
Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.
He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.
Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”