Elliott ran strong throughout Sunday’s race and a late-race wreck sent up an overtime restart that put Elliott alongside Hendrick Motorsports teammate and leader William Byron on the front row.
When the race resumed. Elliott got near Byron and gave his No. 24 Chevrolet a shot from behind, but Byron remained unfazed and cleared for the lead off Turn 2. He then held off a late challenge by fellow teammate Kyle Larson to earn his third win of the season.
Elliott ended up third – his best result of the year – and part of a Hendrick 1-2-3 finish, a first by any organization at the Virginia short track.
The win came on the 40th anniversary of the organization’s first Cup win by Geoffrey Bodine, which also took place at Martinsville. Nearly 1,500 Hendrick employees, friends and family members were on hand for the milestone race.
“Second or third, what does it matter? Yeah, obviously No. 1 congrats to William and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports,” Elliott said. “Rick and Linda, all the people that put this together for us. They have an unbelievable program. I think we’re all proud to call it home.
“It was awesome hosting over a thousand folks from Hendrick today, employees and their families. Glad one of us could get it done.
“Obviously, I wish we could have got it done, selfishly like anybody would.”
Elliott has had a slow start to the 2024 season, coming off last season when he missed five races and failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in his Cup career. He is immersed in a 42-race winless streak as his most recent victory came at Talladega in the fall of the 2022 season.
Over the last weeks, however, Elliott and his No. 9 Chevrolet team have been much more competitive. He finished fifth last weekend at Richmond and led 64 laps – a season high – on his way to his third-place finish Sunday.
“Nice to have a couple solid weeks, to be in contention there for a win. Haven’t been in contention to win one in a while,” Elliott said. “It was fun to kind of get to that last restart and it actually mattered. Enjoyed that aspect. Certainly hungry for more.
“I feel like throughout a lot of the season this year, we’ve been working in a good direction, working really good together. Pit stops have been really good. Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) has been calling really good races.
“All that stuff has been going in a really positive direction, in my opinion. I think if we can just keep producing that, we’ll get our turn one day.”
