Chase Elliott overcomes the elements to take NASCAR Cup win at Nashville

Chase Elliott salvaged a crummy day for Hendrick Motorsports and interrupted a potential Toyota rout by winning the rain-drenched race at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday night.

Elliott recovered from an early issue that dropped him deep into the field to take the lead with 38 laps remaining and hold off three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers for his second Cup victory of the season.

It took NASCAR’s most popular driver nearly seven hours and a late four-lap shootout to get to victory lane. NASCAR moved the start up by 12 minutes because of looming bad weather, then sat through an hour-long stoppage for lightning in the area, followed by a later rain delay that stretched a tick past two hours.

“So proud of our team,“ Elliott said. “We had kind of a setback there about halfway and was able to get the Chevy dialed back in and get back in the mix. It was a long day, fun day.”

The race resumed right at the halfway point with teams unsure if the full 300 laps would be completed or if the race would be stopped early because of more rain. Toyota controlled almost the entire event — four of its drivers combined to lead 253 laps — but the No. 5 Hendrick crew brought Elliott’s Chevrolet to life in the closing stretch.

“We were able to work on it there a little bit after our penalty and got it going a little better,“ Elliott said. “So just stuck with it. Thanks to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, too. They’ve been working really hard.”

He had the race in hand when a caution came out with nine laps remaining and Elliott didn’t pit from the lead for fresh tires. Nine other drivers stayed on track with him to create a pack of traffic that prevented the Toyotas from catching Elliott after they stopped for fresh tires.