Special from Elliott Racing

Defending Winchester 400 winner Chase Elliott battled back from a mid-race transmission change in his Aaron’s Dream Machine to finish third in the 40^th annual running of one of the most prestigious short track races in America.

Elliott started the 400 from seventh place after posting a qualifying lap of 116. 603 miles per hour, just a few ticks of the stopwatch off the pole-winning speed of 118.087 mph set by Derrick Griffin.

As he was preparing to do battle, Elliott offered his usual thanks to his Aaron’s crew for all their hard work and assured them that he would do what it took to be there at the end and make something of the day.

The early portions of the race were punctuated by caution flags, the first of them flying before a lap had been completed. Elliott maintained seventh through the third caution period of the race, which began at Lap 35.

Lap 42 saw the green flag waving again, and Elliott lost two positions to the No. 72 of Scott Hantz and the No. 111 of Peter Cozzolino. But he worked his way back around them both before the next caution was displayed on Lap 63.

When the green flag flew again on Lap 69, Elliott made his way around the No. 81 of Terry Fisher Jr. and the No. 17 of Josh Vadnais to take over the fifth position by Lap 83.

During the next caution period, Elliott radioed to crew chief Ricky Turner that his Aaron’s Dream Machine was performing well, with good speed on the exit of the turns.

Elliott lined up third for the restart at Lap 93, but his transmission broke on the start, setting off a chain-reaction wreck behind him and bringing out the red flag.

Although Elliott was apologetic about the wreck, the red flag turned out to be a blessing for him as his Aaron’s crew was able to replace the transmission and get him back on the track in 14^th place when racing resumed.

Elliott’s father Bill Elliott complimented the Aaron’s crew for their quick work.

"Fantastic job getting that transmission replaced, guys," he said. "That’s what it takes to get the job done."

Elliott immediately set out to make up the lost ground and had made his way back into the top 10 by Lap 113, passing Tommy St. John, Jay Niewiek, eventual winner Boris Jurkovic, Dennis Schoenfeld and Hantz in the process.

Elliott continued his march to the front, passing Mason Mingus and Donnie Wilson on his way to the top five when caution was displayed again on Lap 147.

Elliott pitted for two right side tires, and the Aaron’s pit crew won the race off pit road, beating all six drivers ahead of them to give Elliott the race lead.

The replacement transmission, which had different gear ratios, put Elliott and his equipment to the test on restarts, but it didn’t keep him from maintaining the lead until he stopped for two left-side tires during a caution period at Lap 241. He was still leading when he stopped for right-side tires at Lap 264, but he stalled his car on exit of the pits and came out in the fourth position.

"That was totally my fault," Elliott radioed to his crew. "I’m sorry, guys. Good stop though. I will get them back."

The next caution on Lap 274 found Elliott back in third, and by Lap 287 he was around Hantz again and closing on the No. 4 car of pole-sitter Derrick Griffin.

For the next 100 laps Elliott ran between second and fifth place, restart after restart, battling against some of the nation’s top Super Late Model racers, among them Ross Kenseth, whose father Matt won the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway Saturday night.

With five laps to go and Elliott and Griffin racing side by side and nose to tail for the top spot, the caution flag flew.

Elliott’s crew chief Ricky Turner made the gutsy call to give up second place and bring his driver to pit road for fresh right-side tires, a move intended to give his driver an edge on the late-race restart.

With only seven drivers on the lead lap, Elliott lined up fifth for the restart. Jurkovic, who inherited second place when Elliott drove to pit road, took the lead at the drop of the green flag, but another caution flag flew at Lap 398.

This time it was Griffin coming to pit road for tires, so Jurkovic led on the restart with Elliott in second place. But as the lead trio came to the checkered flag, Griffin passed Elliott to take second.

"Not a terrible day after you think of everything we went through," Elliott said. "The team did a fantastic job. No one ever gave up and Ricky made some good calls.

"We did what we needed to do to stay in contention for the [CRA] national title."

Don’t forget to vote for Chase Elliott for Most Popular Driver in the NASCAR K & N Pro East series! http://bit.ly/mWPH8r