Winners and Losers of the finish to the NASCAR Cup Series race at COTA

AUSTIN, Texas — Every lead-lap position on the racetrack changed at least once over the final 13 laps of the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Circuit of the Americas.

In the end, Christopher Bell came away as the winner, leaving Kyle Busch empty-handed again. However, there were other winners and losers from the finish of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix.

Winner: Chase Elliott

Elliott’s race didn’t really get to start before it seemed like it ended with a punt from Ross Chastain in turn one on lap one.

Chastain may have booted Elliott to the back of the pack but crew chief Alan Gustafson dug in, leveraging that into six bonus points for a fifth-place finish in stage one.

Elliott was quiet throughout the race but was up to 13th when the caution flew on lap 79. Gustafson brought him in and his crew sent him back out 23rd.

In stark contrast to early on in the race, Elliott gained back everything he lost in one lap — jumping from 23rd to 13th on the restart.

Elliott had to jostle for a few laps with Todd Gilliland, who was on older tires, before setting his sights on the front of the pack in the final seven laps. He drove to ninth with five laps to go, eighth with four laps to go and fifth with three laps to go. On the final lap, Elliott passed Kyle Busch for fourth, netting his first top-five finish and first top-10 of the season.

Gustafson’s strategy calls produced a net gain of 15 points for Elliott. While it’s still a little early to talk about “the playoffs” or “the regular-season championship,” consider that Elliott entered last year’s regular-season championship race 18 points out of the lead.

COTA could be a key factor in Elliott’s championship hopes this season.

Winner: Michael McDowell

Much like the rest of his season so far, Michael McDowell had an up-and-down day but recovered on the up.

McDowell started 16th and jumped to eighth after chaos ensued on the first lap. He slowly slid to 12th by the time he pitted on lap 16 — and plunged back in the pack with a penalty for having a crew member over the wall too soon.

McDowell and his No. 71 Spire Motorsports team persevered. Crew chief Travis Peterson kept McDowell out, netting them eight bonus points for a third-place stage two finish.

When the final stage started on lap 50, McDowell stayed out and had a good restart in the top-five on older tires.

That was quickly negated by a quick caution on the same lap. On the subsequent restart four laps later, on lap 54, McDowell dropped to eighth and was 17th on lap 57 before pitting the next lap.

McDowell joined Elliott on pit road and had a similar jump as him on the final restart. He jumped from 30th to 23rd on the first lap, then jumped to 20th with 10 to go. He made it to 16th with five laps to go before jumping three spots to 13th and then to 12th in the subsequent two laps. In the end, he finished 11th.

Winner: Brad Keselowski

Keselowski nearly had an average day go bad in the final stage. He hadn’t scored any stage points, didn’t have any penalties and had an average running position of 20th.

Then, his cool suit failed.

Still, Keselowski persisted — and crew chief Jeremy Bullins kept him in the game. Keselowski pitted for new tires and came out 26th. He, too, benefitted from the chaos on the first lap of the final restart and jumped to 19th.

As the tires wear difference became apparent in the final five laps, Keselowski jumped to 16th and then gained two spots before finishing 15th.

Afterward, Keselowski went to the infield care center for IV fluids. RFK Racing confirmed he felt “much better” upon receiving fluids.

What’ll make the RFK Racing owner-driver feel better is he made it to the checkered flag clean with his best finish of the season so far and his sixth top-15 finish in 18 NextGen road-course starts.

Loser: A.J. Allmendinger

For 90 laps, A.J. Allmendinger was in classic form. He spent every lap inside of the top-15 and stood out from the field with the:

• Fourth-best average running position: Sixth
• Fifth-most fastest laps: Six laps
• Sixth-most laps in the top-15: 91 laps

Allmendinger started 12th but quickly ascended to the top-10, placing 10th in stage one. He ran third-best to Kyle Busch and Shane van Gisbergen throughout the race, placing behind them in sixth in stage two as three drivers ahead of them stayed out.

As drivers like William Byron and Christopher Bell picked up the pace in the final stage, Allmendinger was still fourth to Busch, Byron and Bell. On the final restart, Allmendinger was there, even with older tires.

Until lap 91.

Allmendinger had lost a position a lap the two laps before, dropping from fifth to seventh. On lap 91, he fell to 11th. Then, he dropped to 17th the next lap, 24th the lap after that, 29th with one lap to go and 30th at the finish.

In all, Allmendinger lost 26 positions. 26 points lost means he is 25th in points, 28 points below the cutline, instead of 17th, two points below.

For a driver who seizes upon road courses to better his playoff hopes, the final four laps at COTA was a big disappointment. Still, there is still a long way to go.

Loser: Ty Gibbs

Like Elliott, Gibbs’ issues started in turn one on lap one. In the jam-up behind Elliott spinning, Gibbs had a redux of his Bowman Gray incident with Justin Haley as he ramped over the right-front fender of teammate Denny Hamlin.

For the rest of the day, Gibbs ran in about 11th-20th and was on the back end of the top-20 when the final caution flew. Crew chief Tyler Allen kept him on the track, setting him up to restart 12th and go for more.

Unfortunately, Gibbs was spun and dropped back to 33rd. He made up a couple of spots before finding himself stuck in 34th for the final seven laps.

Gibbs is ready for, as many drivers and teams have described, the “real season” to start at Phoenix Raceway. Last spring, he led 57 laps and finished third there.

Loser: Team Penske

Coming off of two very strong races, Penske was noticeably absent at COTA.

All three drivers started no better than 23rd. Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric started 23rd, 25th and 36th, respectively. Logano placed second in the first stage before Blaney took the spot in the second stage.

Ryan Blaney found himself flirting with a top-10 spot — a rarity for a driver who has otherwise mostly struggled on road courses in the NextGen era. Crew chief Jonathan Hassler kept him out on older tires. He came out of the restart in 11th, then slid to 14th and finally to 19th as the tire wear set in.

Joey Logano leaped over Blaney on the restart with similar old tires. Logano jumped from 11th to ninth and was as high as seventh with six laps to go. Then, the bottom fell out as he dropped to 10th with five laps to go and then all the way to 19th over the course of a lap racing Alex Bowman and Todd Gilliland.

Logano stabilized in 21st but then dropped to 24th on the final lap. Right behind him was Austin Cindric who went from hero to zero very quickly Sunday.

Cindric started 36th and right-rear hooked Ty Dillon early on. Crew chief Brian Wilson tried what he could to gain track position for Cindric but it wasn’t enough to keep him in the top-15 any longer than 14 laps. On the final restart, he dropped from 13th to finish 25th.

Like Gibbs, Penske is ready for Phoenix, where they finished 1-2 in the fall to lock up a threepeat of the NASCAR Cup Series championship. While the team as a whole hasn’t performed as well in the spring race, going to a track that could be reasonably renamed in your team’s honor feels pretty good.

Loser: Ryan Preece

For the second time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, Ryan Preece was the first to the green-and-white checkered flag at the end of a stage. Preece claimed his second career stage win, netting 10 bonus championship points.

Late in the race, Preece recovered from sacrificing those points as he was inside of the top-12 when the final caution flew. Crew chief Derrick Finley brought him in for tires and his crew brought him out as one of the top drivers on new tires.

Preece was 22nd before the choose and only jumped to 20th on the restart. Racing mid-pack was a slog as he dropped to 21st the next lap and then to 28th with 10 laps to go. With four laps to go, he recovered to 24th and scrapped together some points with his newfound grip — when his fuel pump went sour. Preece dropped to 32nd the next lap and then to 33rd at the checkered flag. The finish left him disappointed post-race.