| NASCAR CUP SERIES WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY RACEWAY ROUND OF 16: RACE TWO TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT SEPTEMBER 7, 2025 |
| MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom |
| Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott earned his career-best finish at World Wide Technology Raceway – driving his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet to a third-place finish in the Enjoy Illinois 300. The result – Elliott’s eighth top-five finish of the season – moved the former series champion up to the ninth position in the playoff standings with a 28-point cushion heading into the Round of 16 elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Four Team Chevy playoff contenders will enter the first elimination race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs with a double-digit cushion over the cutline with Kyle Larson in the third position (+60 points), William Byron in the sixth position (+39 points), Chase Elliott in the ninth position (+28 points) and Ross Chastain in the 11th position (+19 points). Despite struggling with the handling of his No. 3 Dow DayGlo Chevrolet through much of the race, the Richard Boswell-led team collected stage points and took home an 18th-place finish to head to Bristol Motor Speedway in the first spot below the cutline with just an 11-point deficit. Part Two of the Round of 16 saw Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team lead the field to the green-flag from a front-row starting position. Settling into the second position on the opening lap, it took just seven laps for the 33-year-old Elk Grove, California, native to make a pass for the lead – going on to pull his Chevrolet-powered machine to a nearly three-second lead over pole-sitter, Denny Hamlin, within the following 10 laps around the 1.25-mile oval. Giving up the lead to hit pit road under the first caution of the day, Larson took his four fresh Goodyear tires to drive from 11th to the runner-up position to take the first green-white checkered flag of the day to end Stage One. With a call from crew chief, Cliff Daniels, to stay out during the stage break, Larson found a spot back on the front-row to take the green-flag for Stage Two. With a powerhouse restart, Larson quickly reclaimed the top position over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Williams Byron, on the opening lap of the stage. A pair of cautions near the midway point of the stage produced a mix bag of pit strategy throughout the field. Not favoring the strategy set forth by the Daniels-led team, the No. 5 Chevrolet team opted to hit pit road under the Lap 76 caution for four tires and fuel – putting them in the 20th position for the restart. Despite the loss of track position, the speed prevailed in the No. 5 Chevrolet with Larson reentering the top-10 with 40 laps remaining in the stage. With a two-lap dash to close out Stage Two, Larson once again led the Bowtie brigade to the green-white checkered flag in the fourth position. Four Team Chevy playoff drivers collected stage points with Larson leading Austin Dillon in sixth, Chase Elliott in eighth and Ross Chastain rounding out the top-10. Back in a familiar position to start the final stage was Larson, who lined up on the inside lane of the second row for the green-flag with 93 laps to go in the race. Larson lost his track position when the team had to pay a second visit to pit road under the caution to fix the rear diffuser flap – forcing the team to restart in the 29th position with 76 laps to go. Varying pit strategies came into play when the final green-flag pit cycle approached at the 200-lap marker. With a caution flying amidst the green-flag pit cycle, strategy came to the forefront once again. With just four laps on his set of tires, crew chief, Alan Gustafson, called for Elliott to stay out under the caution to lineup in the fifth position for the restart with 25 laps to go – going on to lead Chevrolet to the finish to score their eighth top-five finish of the season. |
| TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS: POS. DRIVER 3rd – Chase Elliott  Chevrolet’s season statistics with 28 NASCAR Cup Series races complete: Wins: 12Poles: 10Top-Fives: 54Top 10s: 115Stage Wins: 22 |
| UP NEXT: The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 16 will conclude at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Saturday, September 13, at 7:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on the USA Network, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. |
| Post-Race Driver Quotes: Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 24th “I thought for most of the day, we were around a 10th-place Busch Light Chevy. We had a bad restart, and then the caution came out and trapped us a lap down and magnified it. We just need more. We want more.” You head into Bristol 19-points above the cutline. Is that comfortable or uncomfortable?“Well it’s 19-points better than not. I don’t know what it is… I will go and prepare the same as we would if we won the last two races. We’re doing what we think is best and we’ll put our best foot forward when we get to Bristol (Motor Speedway).” Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing ChevroletFinished: 18th“We didn’t come here with a good race car for some reason. All of our cars were pretty off today, we just missed it. But this No. 3 Dow DayGlo Chevrolet team did a great job executing with what we had. We got stage points and finished the best we possibly could right there. We outran our day by a lot, so hard work and execution gives us a shot at Bristol (Motor Speedway). Just feel like we’ve missed some opportunities and could be in a better position, but we did all we could today.” Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 12thAre you encouraged by the speed we saw today? “Yeah, I definitely think we took a massive step in the right direction. I would just love to get to Phoenix to have an opportunity to see. Just proud of this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team. It’s been a struggle here (at Gateway) and this particular style of track, but it’s really been a struggle in general for us at a lot of places lately. Not the finish we obviously wanted, but I feel like we were back to looking like the No. 5 team today.” Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing ChevroletFinished: 22nd“The entire No. 8 Rebel Bourbon Chevrolet team battled from the moment we started today at World Wide Technology Raceway. We qualified deeper in the field and had an early spin in Stage 1, but the Richard Childress Racing team never quit. We drove into the Top 10 towards the final laps, but came up short, finishing 22nd. Our focuses are now on Bristol as we look to get a win in 2025.” Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 3rd“It felt good to just have a solid day for this No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet team. I thought we were really good at times; certainly more competitive than we’ve been in a minute. It was a lot of fun to be up in the mix. We just needed a little bit more there at the end, but we were way, way better than we’ve been here lately, so that’s nice.” William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 11thWhat more did you need there at the end? “I think we had pace this weekend, we just couldn’t get our balance. We really struggled the first two stages with that. We started losing track position in the second and third stages, and it was really hard to overcome. In the final stage, we had a pretty good balance on the car, all things considered, and we were kind of able to go forward, if not maintain. I think there was a lot to learn there in the final stage with how we managed that.” Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 26th“It was just really poor execution on all angles today. It was a bummer. I thought our No. 48 Ally Chevrolet was OK once we were kind of towards the front-half. We just struggled in the back. Super frustrating, but all we can do is keep digging. There’s a lot of people working really hard to continue to be better. I thought, race car-wise, we were heading in the right direction once we had some air on it. We just have to go to Bristol (Motor Speedway) and go to work.” Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 25th“We were too tight in traffic, and then eventually got on the other side of it and I made an error and spun. We just couldn’t get it back. We weren’t amazing. We were probably a 15th-place car, but then detuned it a little bit and ended up where we did. Little frustrating, but it’s kind of where we’re at. 20th and 15th is a huge improvement for us, but obviously in the playoffs, you expect more. There’s that pressure there.” |
| NASCAR CUP SERIESWORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY RACEWAYROUND OF 16: RACE TWOTEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORTSEPTEMBER 7, 2025 |
Elliott Earns Podium Finish at World Wide Technology Raceway |
| MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom |
| Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott earned his career-best finish at World Wide Technology Raceway – driving his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet to a third-place finish in the Enjoy Illinois 300. The result – Elliott’s eighth top-five finish of the season – moved the former series champion up to the ninth position in the playoff standings with a 28-point cushion heading into the Round of 16 elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Four Team Chevy playoff contenders will enter the first elimination race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs with a double-digit cushion over the cutline with Kyle Larson in the third position (+60 points), William Byron in the sixth position (+39 points), Chase Elliott in the ninth position (+28 points) and Ross Chastain in the 11th position (+19 points). Despite struggling with the handling of his No. 3 Dow DayGlo Chevrolet through much of the race, the Richard Boswell-led team collected stage points and took home an 18th-place finish to head to Bristol Motor Speedway in the first spot below the cutline with just an 11-point deficit. Part Two of the Round of 16 saw Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team lead the field to the green-flag from a front-row starting position. Settling into the second position on the opening lap, it took just seven laps for the 33-year-old Elk Grove, California, native to make a pass for the lead – going on to pull his Chevrolet-powered machine to a nearly three-second lead over pole-sitter, Denny Hamlin, within the following 10 laps around the 1.25-mile oval. Giving up the lead to hit pit road under the first caution of the day, Larson took his four fresh Goodyear tires to drive from 11th to the runner-up position to take the first green-white checkered flag of the day to end Stage One. With a call from crew chief, Cliff Daniels, to stay out during the stage break, Larson found a spot back on the front-row to take the green-flag for Stage Two. With a powerhouse restart, Larson quickly reclaimed the top position over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Williams Byron, on the opening lap of the stage. A pair of cautions near the midway point of the stage produced a mix bag of pit strategy throughout the field. Not favoring the strategy set forth by the Daniels-led team, the No. 5 Chevrolet team opted to hit pit road under the Lap 76 caution for four tires and fuel – putting them in the 20th position for the restart. Despite the loss of track position, the speed prevailed in the No. 5 Chevrolet with Larson reentering the top-10 with 40 laps remaining in the stage. With a two-lap dash to close out Stage Two, Larson once again led the Bowtie brigade to the green-white checkered flag in the fourth position. Four Team Chevy playoff drivers collected stage points with Larson leading Austin Dillon in sixth, Chase Elliott in eighth and Ross Chastain rounding out the top-10. Back in a familiar position to start the final stage was Larson, who lined up on the inside lane of the second row for the green-flag with 93 laps to go in the race. Larson lost his track position when the team had to pay a second visit to pit road under the caution to fix the rear diffuser flap – forcing the team to restart in the 29th position with 76 laps to go. Varying pit strategies came into play when the final green-flag pit cycle approached at the 200-lap marker. With a caution flying amidst the green-flag pit cycle, strategy came to the forefront once again. With just four laps on his set of tires, crew chief, Alan Gustafson, called for Elliott to stay out under the caution to lineup in the fifth position for the restart with 25 laps to go – going on to lead Chevrolet to the finish to score their eighth top-five finish of the season. |
| TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS: POS. DRIVER 3rd – Chase Elliott Chevrolet’s season statistics with 28 NASCAR Cup Series races complete: Wins: 12Poles: 10Top-Fives: 54Top 10s: 115Stage Wins: 22 |
| UP NEXT: The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 16 will conclude at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Saturday, September 13, at 7:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on the USA Network, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. |
| Post-Race Driver Quotes: Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 24th “I thought for most of the day, we were around a 10th-place Busch Light Chevy. We had a bad restart, and then the caution came out and trapped us a lap down and magnified it. We just need more. We want more.” You head into Bristol 19-points above the cutline. Is that comfortable or uncomfortable?“Well it’s 19-points better than not. I don’t know what it is… I will go and prepare the same as we would if we won the last two races. We’re doing what we think is best and we’ll put our best foot forward when we get to Bristol (Motor Speedway).” Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing ChevroletFinished: 18th“We didn’t come here with a good race car for some reason. All of our cars were pretty off today, we just missed it. But this No. 3 Dow DayGlo Chevrolet team did a great job executing with what we had. We got stage points and finished the best we possibly could right there. We outran our day by a lot, so hard work and execution gives us a shot at Bristol (Motor Speedway). Just feel like we’ve missed some opportunities and could be in a better position, but we did all we could today.” Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 12thAre you encouraged by the speed we saw today? “Yeah, I definitely think we took a massive step in the right direction. I would just love to get to Phoenix to have an opportunity to see. Just proud of this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team. It’s been a struggle here (at Gateway) and this particular style of track, but it’s really been a struggle in general for us at a lot of places lately. Not the finish we obviously wanted, but I feel like we were back to looking like the No. 5 team today.” Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing ChevroletFinished: 22nd“The entire No. 8 Rebel Bourbon Chevrolet team battled from the moment we started today at World Wide Technology Raceway. We qualified deeper in the field and had an early spin in Stage 1, but the Richard Childress Racing team never quit. We drove into the Top 10 towards the final laps, but came up short, finishing 22nd. Our focuses are now on Bristol as we look to get a win in 2025.” Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 3rd“It felt good to just have a solid day for this No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet team. I thought we were really good at times; certainly more competitive than we’ve been in a minute. It was a lot of fun to be up in the mix. We just needed a little bit more there at the end, but we were way, way better than we’ve been here lately, so that’s nice.” William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 11thWhat more did you need there at the end? “I think we had pace this weekend, we just couldn’t get our balance. We really struggled the first two stages with that. We started losing track position in the second and third stages, and it was really hard to overcome. In the final stage, we had a pretty good balance on the car, all things considered, and we were kind of able to go forward, if not maintain. I think there was a lot to learn there in the final stage with how we managed that.” Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 26th“It was just really poor execution on all angles today. It was a bummer. I thought our No. 48 Ally Chevrolet was OK once we were kind of towards the front-half. We just struggled in the back. Super frustrating, but all we can do is keep digging. There’s a lot of people working really hard to continue to be better. I thought, race car-wise, we were heading in the right direction once we had some air on it. We just have to go to Bristol (Motor Speedway) and go to work.” Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 25th“We were too tight in traffic, and then eventually got on the other side of it and I made an error and spun. We just couldn’t get it back. We weren’t amazing. We were probably a 15th-place car, but then detuned it a little bit and ended up where we did. Little frustrating, but it’s kind of where we’re at. 20th and 15th is a huge improvement for us, but obviously in the playoffs, you expect more. There’s that pressure there.” |