Chase Elliott 'just came up short' as title hopes end in rookie season
Going into Sunday’s Hellmann’s 500 Chase for the Sprint Cup elimination race at Talladega Superspeedway, Chase Elliott faced a virtual must-win situation in order to advance to the next round.
In the early stages of the race, it looked like the rookie driver had the speed in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to compete for the win, leading a total of nine laps after battling for the top spot with Brad Keselowski.
But Elliott lacked the help he needed to stay up there, falling back in the pack as the race went on.
“I don’t know what happened and how we got shuffled out,” Elliott said after the race. “It was just kind of the sequence of events. All it takes is one move on someone’s part and it can take you from the top five and outside the top 10. It doesn’t take much.”
Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, who advanced to the next round with a win at Charlotte Motor Speedway, tried to help him as much as possible, but his efforts were to no avail.
“Those guys were awesome to work with,” said Elliott. “I felt like they didn’t hurt us. There weren’t enough folks to go with us the times we work together. I appreciate those guys helping us how we could.”
Unfortunately for Elliott, a 12th-place finish wasn’t enough to move on to the Round of 8 after failing to make his way back up to the front in time to battle for the win. He joined Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. and Austin Dillon among drivers who failed to advance.
But for Elliott, it wasn’t from a lack of speed or hard work, because Elliott had the car and put in the effort.
Nor was it from a lack of help from others drivers, as Elliott admitted he had that, too.
Ultimately, as Elliott explained, it was just a product of restrictor-plate racing.
“We had a really good car again,” Elliott said. “You try to make stuff happen and I felt like we were pretty aggressive trying to get to the bottom and try to make things happen there when it was at the top. I just couldn’t find myself in the right spot at the right time with the right folks behind us, or at least enough folks.
“We had some great pushers all day, and they knew our car was fast,” he added. “It was helpful. We just came up short.”
Overall, Elliott did everything in his power to give himself a shot to keep the dream alive.
“We were trying to be as aggressive we could and try to make stuff happen,” said Elliott. “We tried hard.”
Despite the disappointment, Elliott still has one goal in mind -- winning his first career Sprint Cup race.
“I felt like we tried hard again this weekend and we were able to lead some laps and stay up front for a good portion of the race there at the beginning,” he said. “I don’t know what you can do. We’ll just look forward to Martinsville and go get it there.”
