Chase Elliott’s victory Thursday night won’t make up for losing last Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600, but it means he left Charlotte Motor Speedway after having won Tuesday’s Truck race and the rain-delayed Cup race.

MORE: Race results and points report .

WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Denny Hamlin’s runner-up finish marks his third top-five result of the season.

NEXT RACE: Cup races at 3:30 p.m.

ET Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway (FS1), PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Marcus Smith, president of Speedway Motorsports, said “I think that NASCAR will be the first major sport with fans back in attendance, and I think it will be in a place where one, the state regulations allow it, and two, where the large outdoor facility gives an opportunity to provide plenty of space, plenty of distance and plenty of areas for people to still have fun but be in a  safe environment.”.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway could be the first track that hosts fans when it has the NTT IndyCar Series and Xfinity Series race on the road course July 4 and the Cup Series race on the oval July 5.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials have not announced what plans they’ll have for the July 4-5 races.

Crew chief Alan Gustafson admits it “wasn’t a great feeling” Sunday after his decision to pit Chase Elliott before overtime cost Elliott a chance to win the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“I don’t base my self‑worth on other people’s opinions, or if I’m doing a good job based on what other people say, but certainly I’m a human being, too, and when you get that many rocks thrown at you, it doesn’t feel great,” Gustafson said after Elliott won Thursday’s Cup race at Charlotte.

We’re also assuming that we stay out and we win the race, so it’s tough. It’s just a tough situation.”.

While not as much has been mentioned about the obstacles drivers will face at Bristol Motor Speedway before Sunday’s Cup race and Monday night’s Xfinity race, they shouldn’t be overlooked?

I’ve run Truck races there through my career and when we’re one of the first ones on the race track, that first hour of practice you can’t really learn much.

Thursday night’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway marked the second midweek Cup race since NASCAR’s season resumed.

That’s why NASCAR races typically are on a weekend.

“NASCAR, in my opinion, has hit gold with this format,” he said after Thursday’s Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “The limited practice, show up and race, and the time window that benefits both the East and West Coast. No qualifying. Inversion from the week before is really good because it mixes the field up and creates some good storylines there.

“It’s compelling and it’s at a time where, quite frankly, the sports world, even if it wasn’t for COVID, midweek races in the summer, when you’re generally not having a lot of competition, is in a time period where everybody is hungry for content. I think they’ve got gold here. COVID or not, I hope we keep this for years to come.

I think this is a great little format that’s good for the sport and good for the fans and good for everybody all around, so kudos to them.”.

Charlotte Motor Speedway hosted four NASCAR races, including two Cup races, this week but none of those Cup races was the All-Star Race.

Marcus Smith, president of Speedway Motorsports, was asked this week in a media conference about that event’s future and if it will remain at Charlotte.

“I think the plan is that it would be at Charlotte, but I think it’s important to note that we haven’t announced it because it’s just not ready to be announced yet,” Smith said.

It was a long week for Chase Elliott, but he capped it off with his first NASCAR Cup win of the season in Thursday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Thursday’s win marked the second straight visit to victory lane for Elliott, who held off Kyle Busch to win in Tuesday’s Truck Series race at Charlotte.

It’s not the Coca-Cola 600, but any win in the Cup Series is really hard to get, and I really appreciate everybody at Hendrick Motorsports across the street, Chevrolet, and everybody at the shop have been working really hard.

Denny Hamlin – finished second: “(How were you able to rebound for the runner-up finish?) Eventually the air pressure built up enough to where it got off the race track.

Every time we come back to a race track for the second time, our results are really, really good.

We’re making good adjustments, I had a really good Camry, just needed to be a little better in the short run there.

We made a good run at it, but it was just too late.”.

We had two solid races here at Charlotte.

I knew we had good speed in our car from the Coca-Cola 600 the other night, we just weren’t able to put the whole race together.

Brian (Pattie) made some really good adjustments that allowed us to make passes and make aggressive moves to gain track position and hold it during the final green flag run.

This is exactly the type of momentum we need heading into one of my favorite tracks – Bristol Motor Speedway – this Sunday.”.

A top-five at Charlotte (Motor Speedway) on a Thursday night.

We started off with some good track position on the initial start and then had the opportunity to stay out, which we were able to grab a stage win and get another playoff point for the second week in a row, which is nice.

It was just impossible to pass.

I needed a caution to have the opportunity to have a restart and a pit stop, but in this racing you just run hard, you try to get everything you can on restarts.

We’re detail racing for sure and after that you hope that maybe there’s a car like the 4 that is fast and falls off, and there might be one or two cars that you might get on the long haul, possibly, but it’s tough at a track that’s just not wide enough.”.

I think we drove up to seventh to finish the race, but it’s kind of not my strongest day.

“(How was tonight different physically compared to the much longer Coca-Cola 600?) It feels like I just played one half of a game, rather than a full game.

It’s a good give-and-take.

It doesn’t just completely destroy your body, so I think NASCAR has really hit something here.

I couldn’t see the front, but it seemed like it was pretty racy there at the end for the win, and I think that’s always a good thing as well.

“(You’ve talked about midweek races for some time. Do you think NASCAR will schedule more?) Oh yeah, I think absolutely.

NASCAR, in my opinion, has hit gold with this format. The limited practice, show up and race, and the time window that benefits both the east and west coast.

Inversion from the week before is really good because it mixes the field up and creates some good storylines there.

I think it’s fair. It’s compelling and it’s at a time where, quite frankly, the sports world, even if it wasn’t for COVID, midweek races in the summer, when you’re generally not having a lot of competition, is in a time period where everybody is hungry for content.

COVID or not, I hope we keep this for years to come. I think this is a great little format that’s good for the sport and good for the fans and good for everybody all around, so kudos to them.”.

We’ve run 900 miles at Charlotte Motor Speedway over the past few days and we were an eighth-place car for all of it.

We were just a little too free tonight.

Bristol Motor Speedway is next.

We tried to figure out what we needed to be a little better than the other night and we started the race and we were just crazy loose.

Honestly, that’s really the whole story.

It was undrivable sideways for the first two stages and we just kept taking big swings at it.

We just continued to chug our way forward the whole time.

We just haven’t been able to catch a break.

Hopefully, all the bad luck is out of the way as far as that’s concerned and we can go have us a good race at Bristol.”.

Kevin Harvick – finished 10th: “It just falls off after lap 30.

They did a really good job turning the car around.

We just didn’t need a long run.”.

It was just never the same, but the guys did a good job fixing it, trying to get us back up to the front.

Seth [Barbour] and the crew did a really good job of tuning her up and making improvements so we could find some speed.

It made it really hard to trust the car as we went into the corners of the track.

We just lacked some long run speed tonight to stay up there and battle within the top 10.

It’s been fun racing in our backyard of Charlotte over the past week, but I’m looking forward to moving on to Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday.”.

We just had too many penalties tonight!

Aric Almirola – finished 20th: “That was just an overall tough day for our Smithfield Ford team today!

The car was just not where we wanted it to be and contact with the No.

The pit crew did a great job today and gained us some spots, but unfortunately I just couldn’t pass in traffic with the way the car handled.

The handling on the car improved some throughout the night, but we just got too far back with the bad breaks to be able to do much more.

Michael McDowell – finished 25th: “It was an up and down night at Charlotte Motor Speedway for our No.

However as daylight faded and the track temperature began to change, our race car started to tighten up on entry into the corners, making it tough to carry speed through the turns; something we battled all night long.

34 CarParts.com Ford Mustang, but we just ran out of time at the end.

I just got in the wall there at the end and it really hurt the right side

That’s a wrap on 4 straight races at Charlotte Motor Speedway this week

We’ll get to the root of our problem and continue to bring a fast race car to the track

We’re showing big improvements and that’s really all we can ask for

— Denny Hamlin says work remains for his team but it was hard to complain after he went from a 29th starting spot to finishing second in Thursday night’s Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway

They picked us up three spots every time at least, and 29th to second in half the distance of a normal race, I mean, that’s about all we could even ask for.”

“It’s just Chevys in general,” Hamlin said

“Every time we go to a racetrack the second time, the results are amazing,” said Hamlin, who climbed into the top 10 on Lap 118 of the 208-lap race and never fell out of it the rest of the night

“We’re making the right adjustments, we’re doing the right things, and that’s good because the end of the year in the playoffs you’re going back to racetracks for the second time, and that’s when we need to run well, and that’s what got us to the final four last year