Chase Elliott gets worst of early RIR mishap involving Jeff Gordon
Chase Elliott had a scary moment early on in the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
Elliott, one of the drivers fighting to stay in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, was the innocent victim of an incident after his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman made contact, shortly after a restart on Lap 92.
The resulting impact forced Elliott to pit road for repairs, where he restarted the race 25th, the last car on the lead lap when the green flag came out again on Lap 101.
The good news for Elliott is once the repairs were made, he was able to soldier on and finish 19th, earning a spot in the Chase in his rookie season. Along with Chris Buescher, Elliott became the first rookie drivers to make into NASCAR’s playoffs since Denny Hamlin in 2006.
“I just think we have to first off be thankful that we were able to get in tonight after the night we had,” said Elliott. “I can't thank my guys for working as hard as they did. I've never had to go through -- I'm sure they haven't, either, all the stuff we went through tonight, so hats off to them, fixing our car multiple times.”
So now, it’s off to try and race for a championship.
“We want to work hard to try to get to victory lane ourselves,” said Elliott. “I think we have a group that can do it and we just got to take these next few weeks and hunker down and give it our best shot.”
