Chase Elliott wins Xfinity Series season opener at Daytona

Ty Dillon (3) and Daniel Suarez (19) lead the field at the start of the NASCAR Xfinity Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016.

It would be another thrilling finish at Daytona Saturday afternoon.

Crew members perform a pit stop on driver Austin Dillon’s vehicle during the NASCAR Xfinity Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016.

After becoming the youngest driver to win the pole for his first Daytona 500 last Sunday, he accomplished the same feat on Saturday with his first Xfinity Series win at Daytona International Speedway in the Powershares QQQ 300.

Elliott didn’t have this one sealed up until he blocked Logano coming out of Turn 4 of the final lap.

It was the ideal prelude to today’s Sprint Cup opener, the Daytona 500, which Elliott will start on the pole – and with tougher competition chasing him.

“It’s three races and three seconds, and I guess it is nothing to hold your head down about, but, gosh, when you see the lead that many times and are that close to winning and don’t pull it off, it’s frustrating”, Logano said.

“I just finished second, again”, Logano joked. Kasey Kahne, another of Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates in Sprint Cup racing, was third. Elliott, Kahne and Sadler all drive for JR Motorsports, co-owned by Earnhardt.

Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk. “I’m not taking it for granted, but I really want to win”.

Bubba Wallace, Brandon Jones, Daniel Suarez, Blake Koch and Brendan Gaughan completed the first10 finishers.

The race was slowed by four cautions for 17 laps. It was quite different than recent years.

The Xfinity opener went about as smoothly.

It looked as if this one could have a wild ending, too, but Elliott and Logano kept their cars straight despite all the contact. “I thought for sure – he was moving around on my bumper pretty hard and like I said, he kind of faked to bottom and as he came back across, we were still kind of touching somewhat”.

“We hit”, said Elliott, who notched his first win at a restrictor-plate race.

“He wanted to know why I didn’t go with him there on the backstretch”, Sadler said. Once I realized his momentum stopped, I tried to get away from him to keep the draft from pulling me back anymore.

“Luckily. we just barely had enough to get in front of Joey there”.