The NASCAR Cup Series celebrated the Fourth of July with a race at Road America. The 4.048-mile road course played host to the Jockey Made in America 250 presented by Kwik Trip. The race had a lot of action and drivers made mistakes all around the course. The cars would also have trouble with some breaking in the middle of a corner. In the end, Chase Elliott furthered his case to be known as the best NASCAR road course racer of all time. Read on for a NASCAR recap of Elliott’s seventh career road course victory.
NASCAR Cup Series Recap | Chase Elliott Wins at Road America
Jockey Made in America 250 Stage 1
After putting down the fastest time in qualifying, William Byron led the field to the green flag and the first race at Road America in 65 years was on. Just three laps in, Daniel Suarez stalled his car to bring out the first caution of the day. After getting back to green, Ryan Preece broke something in his car and would immediately take it into the garage, ending his day. Kyle Tilley missed the carousel badly and got stuck in the gravel pit to bring out another yellow. Stage 1 ended under caution with William Byron earning the playoff point.
Jockey Made in America 250 Stage 2
Martin Truex Jr. took led the field back to the green for the start of Stage 2. He quickly lost the lead before Turn 1 though. Austin Cindric and Matt DiBenedetto proceeded to battle for the lead for the first couple laps of the stage. After starting at the rear of the field, Kyle Busch soon made his way into the fray for the lead. Denny Hamlin started to have brake problems with about eight laps to go in the stage.
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Cindric broke something in the No. 33 Team Penske car and spun from the lead. This brought an end to his dreams of winning the Jockey Made in America 250 and also his day as the team was unable to get the car back on the track. Shortly after, Corey LaJoie spun with four to go. He was able to keep the car going to avoid a caution. A lot of strategy moves were made in the closing laps of the stage and Tyler Reddick took advantage to get his first stage win of the year.
Jockey Made in America 250 Final Stage
Kyle Busch started the final stage out in front, but Matt DiBenedetto quickly worked his way to the lead. It did not last long as Chase Elliott took over soon after. About halfway through the final stage, Anthony Alfredo cut a tire, spun, and ended up in the gravel pit to bring out the final caution of the day. Ryan Blaney and Aric Almirola lucked out as they were on pit road when the yellow flew. They led the field back to the green for the restart.
Elliott wasted little time in getting back to the point. William Byron spun and kept it going to avoid bringing out a caution. Later, Alex Bowman wheel hopped into Turn 5 and hit his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Kyle Larson. The No. 5 car spun completely around while the No. 48 of Bowman took heavy damage to the right front quarter panel.
In the end, defending NASCAR champion Chase Elliott didn’t have to worry about any of that. He drove away and earned his second win of the 2021 NASCAR season. Both have now come on the two new road courses added to the NASCAR Cup Series schedule this year.
Final Jockey Made in America 250 Thoughts
I’ll round out the Jockey Made in America 250 recap by saying this wasn’t a bad race. However, it also wasn’t a great race. NASCAR had the right idea with their Fourth of July experiment up to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. There were entertaining parts of the race, but nothing overly memorable. The NASCAR Cup Series will be back next year to give the 4-mile track another go and figure out the things that went wrong this year.
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