NASCAR Cup Watkins Glen: Larson beats Elliott to win, Raikkonen crashes out

Elliott led the field on the restart with five of 90 laps remaining, Larson pressuring him alongside, and as the two exited Turn 1 Larson appeared to lock up his brakes and drifted wide, which forced Elliott to take avoiding action and allowed Larson to move into the lead.

Larson then had to hold off a furious challenge from A.J. Allmendinger to take the win by 0.882 seconds.

It’s just the second win of the 2022 season for defending NASCAR Cup champion Larson, his other triumph coming at Fontana back in February. The win is also the 18th of Larson’s NASCAR Cup career.

But there was no fairy-tale debut for 2007 Formula 1 world champion Raikkonen, as the Finn was involved in an accident on lap 45 which dropped him out of the action.

As the pack went through the inner loop on the lap 45 restart, Austin Dillon spun off after contact with Ross Chastain and behind them Raikkonen veered off to the left to avoid contact but smashed into the tyre barrier.

The wreck brought an end to the first career Cup start for Raikkonen, and he was eventually credited with a 37th-place finish.

Fellow former F1 driver Daniil Kvyat also struggled at Watkins Glen, failing to make the finish and classified 36th.

The other high profile European import for the race, 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours winner and 2013 DTM champion Mike Rockenfeller, enjoyed a better time of it by finishing on the lead lap and coming home in 30th place on his NASCAR Cup debut.

Behind the fight for victory, Joey Logano ended up third having also got by Elliott late on, who still clinched the regular season championship at Watkins Glen, with Daniel Suarez completing the top five.

Michael McDowell recorded his best finish since Pocono with sixth place, ahead of playoff contenders Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell, as Chris Buescher and Erik Jones rounded out the top 10.

NASCAR heads to Daytona for the final regular season race on 27th August before the playoffs begin at Darlington on 4th September.

NASCAR Cup Watkins Glen - Race Results

Cla	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Laps Led
1	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	90	2:17'52.380			5
2	A.J. Allmendinger		Chevrolet	90	2:17'53.262	0.882	0.882
3	Joey Logano		Ford	90	2:17'56.221	3.841	2.959	15
4	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	90	2:17'56.636	4.256	0.415	29
5	Daniel Suarez		Chevrolet	90	2:17'58.740	6.360	2.104
6	Michael McDowell		Ford	90	2:17'59.553	7.173	0.813	14
7	Tyler Reddick		Chevrolet	90	2:17'59.959	7.579	0.406	2
8	Christopher Bell		Toyota	90	2:18'01.203	8.823	1.244
9	Chris Buescher		Ford	90	2:18'01.355	8.975	0.152
10	Erik Jones		Chevrolet	90	2:18'01.758	9.378	0.403
11	Cole Custer		Ford	90	2:18'02.120	9.740	0.362	7
12	Kevin Harvick		Ford	90	2:18'02.251	9.871	0.131
13	Austin Cindric		Ford	90	2:18'03.197	10.817	0.946
14	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	90	2:18'03.362	10.982	0.165
15	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Chevrolet	90	2:18'04.062	11.682	0.700
16	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	90	2:18'04.531	12.151	0.469
17	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	90	2:18'04.710	12.330	0.179	6
18	Justin Haley		Chevrolet	90	2:18'04.849	12.469	0.139
19	Brad Keselowski		Ford	90	2:18'05.801	13.421	0.952
20	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	90	2:18'06.368	13.988	0.567
21	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	90	2:18'06.731	14.351	0.363
22	William Byron		Chevrolet	90	2:18'06.750	14.370	0.019
23	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	90	2:18'07.671	15.291	0.921
24	Ryan Blaney		Ford	90	2:18'08.049	15.669	0.378
25	Chase Briscoe		Ford	90	2:18'08.360	15.980	0.311	7
26	Ty Gibbs		Toyota	90	2:18'08.643	16.263	0.283
27	Corey Lajoie		Chevrolet	90	2:18'08.965	16.585	0.322
28	Harrison Burton		Ford	90	2:18'09.225	16.845	0.260
29	Aric Almirola		Ford	90	2:18'10.449	18.069	1.224
30	Mike Rockenfeller		Chevrolet	90	2:18'10.676	18.296	0.227
31	Joey Hand		Ford	90	2:18'11.753	19.373	1.077
32	Kyle Busch		Toyota	89	2:18'09.393	1 Lap	1 Lap
33	Loris Hezemans		Ford	89	2:18'11.368	1 Lap	1.975
34	Cody Ware		Ford	88	2:18'12.107	2 Laps	1 Lap
35	Bubba Wallace		Toyota	83	2:08'11.956	7 Laps	5 Laps
36	Daniil Kvyat		Toyota	58	2:18'13.498	32 Laps	25 Laps
37	Kimi Raikkonen		Chevrolet	44	1:09'24.292	46 Laps	14 Laps
38	Todd Gilliland		Ford	28	43'02.938	62 Laps	16 Laps	5
39	Kyle Tilley		Ford	15	23'17.012	75 Laps	13 Laps
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