By james art 
Winston -salem, NC (WBTV) -The most popular driver in NASCAR won on returning sports to the North Carolina historic race track on Sunday night.
Chase Elliott, a driver of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 car, dominates the return of the Bowman Gray Stadium series to Winston-Salem.
Elliott led 171 out of 200 laps on the way to his first victory in the clash. Sunday celebrated the first time Bowman Gray hosted the pre -season and for the first time the CUP series competed on a 1971 -like fourth -mile track when Bobby Alison won.
The NASCAR seven -time protective driver launched at the pole for the main event on Sunday and held a lead for almost the first 100 laps before Danny Hamlin and Tyler Reddik take over.
After the competition, Elliott thanked the fans for making the Bowman Gray Return “Special”.
“Thank you all for getting out,” he said as soon as he left the car. “We all made a really fun environment and you know, we don’t compete in stadiums like this one, so it’s just really cool and I appreciate that you make this moment special to me and my team. That was great. “
The place serves as a football stadium for the Winston-Salem football team, but has long hosted competitions, including weekly in the middle of the year. Elliott said fans “deserve” to see a bowl race there and said he hoped the highest level of NASCAR would return to the unique short song.
The Cup Cup champion in 2023. Ryan Blaney – who started dead last – made charging over the pitch and put pressure on Elliot for the last few dozen laps of the race, but failed to go home and go home home S Hamlin, Joey Logano and Buba Wallace rounded the top five respectively.
The next NASCAR schedule is Daytona 500 qualification on Wednesday, February 12, followed by the duels on Thursday and then, of course, holding the competition itself on Sunday, February 16th.
Related: NASCAR’s emblematic driver to return to North Carolina’s historic Speedway
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