Chase Elliott thought his crash on Saturday was going to get rid of him from the NASCAR Cup Sequence playoffs however extra brutally and truthfully, he thought his Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 crew ‘actually deserved to be’ as a consequence of how they’ve carried out as of late.
This was the evaluation of the 2020 Cup Sequence champion himself throughout a Wednesday look on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Elliott crashed out of the Bristol Evening Race as a consequence of a transfer down the monitor in entrance of John Hunter Nemechek. The contact despatched the No. 9 exhausting into the wall and out of the race.
“I simply felt the urgency to get to the underside and attempt to do what I might to avoid wasting tire,” Elliott mentioned on Sirius. “… It was a excessive danger, however I felt prefer it was a danger that I wanted to attempt to take at that cut-off date in my head. Sadly, didn’t work out.”
Chase Elliott with injury, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Picture by: Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire through Getty Photos
This was his sixth end exterior of the top-10 over the previous eight races. Nevertheless, Elliott began the playoffs because the seventh seed and had seven factors above the cutline to play with. His seventeenth place run didn’t assist issues however a third-place at Gateway gave him simply sufficient of a margin to outlive a worst-case situation.
He simply didn’t notice it when he bought out of the automotive after which talked to the media.
“At the moment, I assumed our night time, I assumed our season was over, to be trustworthy,” Elliott informed host Dave Moody. “I didn’t have an excellent grasp on the place among the different rivals beneath the cutline had been working.
“Had a quick dialog with (crew chief) Alan (Gustafson) proper after I bought out of the automotive. I used to be like, ‘Man is that going to knock us out?’ He mentioned, ‘Yeah, I feel so.’ At that time, clearly, we’re simply bummed.
“It took a while to form of notice the scenario and what it was going to take to knock us out. I bought to observe it on TV with everyone else. It wasn’t essentially the most nice hour and a half or so of my life watching, nevertheless it labored out, thankfully. Obtained actually fortunate with that, no query.”
So now, as soon as once more, Elliott is the seventh seed however now has only a 5 level benefit over the brand new cutline after the elimination of 4 drivers at Bristol. New Hampshire has some similarities to Gateway the place Hendrick Motorsports excelled earlier within the month however Elliott says he and his crew must step up or his worst fears about this season will manifest on this spherical.
New Hampshire
Kansas
Roval
“I simply really feel like, yeah, you’re form of in a spot the place, ‘Man, we actually didn’t need to be right here primarily based on the week earlier than, let’s go and make the very most of it,’” Elliott continued with Moody.
“I simply really feel like there’s nothing to lose for us at this level. We’ve bought to make one thing occur, get some life and get our heads down and simply grind it out these subsequent three weeks.
“It’s form of been a kind of years usually, simply attempting, a few of these days taking what was there. I used to be actually inspired by our Gateway, to be frank, and I assumed there was lots of actually good things that went on there all through the course of the occasion.
“I feel New Hampshire has some similarities to Gateway, so I’m wanting ahead to see how we stack up in that regard.”
