CONCORD, N.C. – When Chase Elliott plowed into the tire barrier in the first turn of the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL on lap 65 while leading Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400, it looked like his race was over.

As it turned out, that wasn’t the case.

Elliott stormed back through the field, taking the lead from Kevin Harvick with six laps left to win his third race of the season.

“I mean, I couldn’t believe I did that. That was just so stupid,” Elliott admitted after the race. “I don’t know that you could have done anything more stupid leading this race than what I did right there. Obviously, I was just really pissed off, and luckily our car wasn’t too bad, and our NAPA Camaro was fast enough to drive up through there, got the cautions at the right time, and just didn’t quit.

“If there’s ever a lesson to not quit, today was the example.”

Elliott’s mishap came during a restart on the 66th lap of the 109-lap race around the 2.28-mile circuit. He was leading the field into turn one when he slammed on the brakes to make the corner, but instead his Chevrolet Camaro simply slid straight into the turn one tire barrier.

The caution flag immediately waved and miraculously Elliott backed his car out of the tire barrier with surprisingly minimal damage.

“At the time I thought we were done,” Elliott said. “I could see the big screen down the back and I was look at it (the front of the car) and I was like, ‘Well, the hoods not that bad.’ But I thought the splitter was knocked up. I felt like if that was going to be the case then we were probably done.”

A visit to his pit stall gave his crew the chance to beat the hood of his No. 9 back down and check on the splitter, which was still exactly where it was supposed to be. Elliott returned to the race, albeit at the tail of the field as Harvick assumed the lead.

From their Elliott put on a passing clinic, slicing and dicing his way back up through the field as green flag pit stops shook up the field. Elliott briefly returned to the lead on lap 78 in the midst of pit stops, but gave up the spot on the next lap when he made his final stop.

Harvick returned to the lead after the pit stop cycle was complete, but Elliott was still the man on the move. He was up to fifth on lap 88, but more than 10 seconds behind Harvick when a caution flag waved for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spinning through the backstretch chicane.

Elliott was now back in the ballgame and he wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass him by. He moved up to fourth for the restart when Daniel Hemric pitted ahead of him, but he dropped to fifth on the ensuing restart with 17 laps left.

The race was halted again before a lap could be completed for a gaggle of cars spun in the infield, giving Elliott another opportunity to rebound. He moved up to fourth, but a caution period again stopped the action when Daniel Suarez had issues in the infield.

Elliott was able to pick off yet another spot on the next restart, but an incident involving Kurt Busch and Chris Buescher in turn eight slowed the field and led to a brief red flag period to clean up fluid on the track.

The race resumed with six laps remaining and Elliott made his move. He quickly dispatched second-place Martin Truex Jr. and began his pursuit of Harvick. He was all over Harvick at the exit of turn eight and stayed glued to his bumper going through the backstretch chicane, which allowed him to get to the outside of Harvick through turns 13 and 14.

Elliott had the preferred line coming out of turn 14 and into the frontstretch chicane, which allowed him to clear Harvick to take the lead. From there Elliott went unchallenged, cruising to a 3.024-second victory.

After the race Elliott returned to the turn one tire barrier, but this time he stuffed his car in the wall and performed a burnout in celebration of his victory.

“I was going back down the frontstretch and I saw that dang thing and I was like, well, I couldn’t pass this opportunity up to go out here and redeem myself a little bit in turn one,” Elliott said. “I was pretty excited about that one. Usually I’m not very quick whited but I was really proud of that. I was pretty fired up.

“It should have never been special in the first place, but since I went out of my way to make it special today I felt like I had to go back and see it one more time.”

Alex Bowman overcame a spin on the opening lap, contact with Bubba Wallace and an illness to finish second and earn the final spot in the second round of the playoffs. Harvick settled for third, followed by Clint Bowyer and Brad Keselowski.

Four drivers were eliminated from playoff contention at the conclusion of Saturday’s race. They included Aric Almirola, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Erik Jones.

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