Last week, Chase Elliott scored his career best NASCAR Sprint Cup Series finish with a fifth place at Texas Motor Speedway.
On Sunday, the rookie driver bettered that by one with a fourth place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway in his first series start at the Tennessee raceway.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story.
Over the closing laps, the Dawsonville, Georgia native moved himself all the way up to second place, and was looking for a way to close on leader Carl Edwards.
While a series of late restarts worked against him, just having moved back into contention for a top five finish was remarkable considering the roller coaster ride Elliott had been on during the course of the 500 lap race.
After starting in the 19th position, Elliott slowly and meticulously worked his way forward, and as the race approached the lap 200 mark, he had moved solidly into the top ten.
With teams trying to find ways to shave seconds off of their pit stops, the practice of using less than five lug nuts on the wheels has become common practice. On Sunday, that came back to bite several contenders in the way of wheels that were not completely tightened up.
On lap 181, that bit Elliott and his Hendrick Motorsports team, as he had to bring the No. 24 Chevy back to pit road due to a vibration. With the race continuing under green, Elliott returned to the track two laps down to the leader.
But he and his team kept digging hard, getting themselves into position to make up the lost laps using the wave around rule during the multitude of cautions that slowed the race during the day.
When Kyle Busch brought out the caution on lap 259 for hard contact with the wall, Elliott used the wave around prior to the restart to get back on the lead lap.
From there, the Rookie of the Year contender worked his way towards the front, and was a contender for the win.
“Hate to have a loose wheel, but (the) guys did a good job overcoming that having a fast pit under green only losing two laps,” Elliott said afterwards. “That was big to keep us in contention there and try to get back on the lead lap. Definitely a long afternoon, but had a fast car, and that was the biggest thing that kept us alive.”
Elliott said recording his best career finish came back to having a good car and his team doing a good job on the weekend.
“We didn’t start off like we wanted to, but we were able to kind of work through some things, lean on our teammates a lot. Friday night, kind of looked at some notes and what our teammates were doing that we felt like they were doing really well, and I feel like that saved us a lot this weekend, just to try to get in the ballpark and then start fine tuning what we needed personally.
“Just proud of the effort, and definitely a cool place. Looking forward to getting back here in the fall and trying to do a little better.”
Bad Day At Bristol For JGR Teammates
While Carl Edwards celebrates his win in Bristol Motor Speedway’s victory lane on Sunday afternoon, his teammates were left to wonder what might have been.
Matt Kenseth started the day from the outside of the front row, alongside pole sitter Edwards. Kenseth would take the lead for the first time on the day on lap 44, and would go on to lead three times for 142 laps, second only to Edwards.
Kenseth was leading on lap 187 when a blown tire sent his No. 20 Toyota into the wall, bringing out the caution. Kenseth was able to stay on the lead lap, and had moved back up to third place when another blown tire on lap 323 sent his car hard into the wall in turn three.
The damage this time was enough to send him to the garage for repairs, ending his shot at the win. He would end up 36th in the final rundown.
“We just keep blowing right front tires, I don’t know why,” Kenseth said. “The first one was a little confusing, I knew I blew a right front, but I thought they were telling me it wasn’t flat so I was a little confused. This one just blew a lot earlier and the angle was a lot worse hitting the wall.”
Fellow Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch also had tire issues. Busch was running in third when a blown right front tire on lap 52 sent him into the wall. Fortunately, the damage was minimal and he was able to continue.
But on lap 259, a second blown tire on the No. 18 Toyota resulted in hard contact with the outside wall, severely damaging the car and ending Busch’s day, relegating him to a 38th place finish.
“I just kept getting tighter in the long run, not sure why that was,” said Busch, who came into the day looking for his third straight Sprint Cup Series. “We had a really great car yesterday and we were fastest in practice. I felt really good about things for today. I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”
Denny Hamlin, driving the fourth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, would finish 20th on the day.
Strong Day For Several
For several drivers, Bristol was a great shot in the arm, as a host of teams recorded strong finishes in Sunday’s race.
For Roush Fenway Racing’s Trevor Bayne, his fifth place finish marked only his second career top five finish. His first came with his win in the 2011 Daytona 500.
“We went through a lot of adversity to get there, but we just didn’t give up,” said Bayne. “We had a really good race car. That’s what paid off. You can’t come back if you don’t have good race cars and we’ve got that now. I need to minimize my mistakes going forward, but we were able to make mistakes and get back to a top five finish.”
Matt DeBinedetto recorded his first career top ten with a sixth place effort in the No. 83 BK Racing Toyota.
“These guys, man – that’s unbelievable for a team like to us to be growing this much and for us to get a sixth-place run – I’m sorry I’m so emotional, it’s just this is like a win for us,” said DeBinedetto. “I am so excited. I see my family back here – my wife, Taylor, my brother is in town from the military and I’m so glad he got to experience this. This is just – this is incredible. I’m so blessed to be here.”
Landon Cassill’s 20 lap stint leading the field near the halfway point of the race turned a lot of heads. While he spent a good portion of the rest of the race racing in the top 10, a late race tangle with Ty Dillon left him finishing in 22nd, the last car on the lead lap.
“Track position is so important,” Cassill said. “We were good enough to keep it for a while, but we weren’t good enough to drive back up through there, but I don’t think anybody was.
“You just needed to have good track position all day, and we had it most of the day and I had a little tangle with the 14 and it was just a hard racing deal.”
