With eight races remaining in the NASCAR Cup Playoffs, Chase Elliott appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday to defuse the drama that developed in the closing stages at Kansas Speedway.
On Sunday, Elliott displayed his displeasure with teammate Kyle Larson, executing a sideswipe to the No. 5 Chevrolet coming off of pit road before knowing the rest of the story.
Certainly, in the heat of moment—and considering the run-ins they experienced in the past—it’s understandable how NASCAR’s most popular driver initially misconstrued the situation. Unlike his post-race comments to media after the Hollywood Casino 400, Elliott offered a clearer assessment to Dave Moody on Sirius XM Speedway following further review.
“There’s a lot that goes on for sure,” Elliott said. “But yeah, we obviously ran into each other on pit road. I didn’t have the full picture of what went on. So I was frustrated, and that stuff happens, for sure. But at the end of the day, I’ll certainly take the blame for my frustration on that front.
“The good news is, he and I can have a conversation like adults and it’s a non-issue. Now, the bad news is it’s a non-issue for all y’all and everybody that wants to talk about it. There’s nothing to talk about. I hate to be the bearer of bad news. I know you guys love your drama, but there’s just none here this week.”
Larson was likely as surprised as anyone following his pit stop when Elliott made contact with his car. His crew chief, Cliff Daniels, explained to the driver, “With the way the 6 (Brad Keselowski) car cleaned us out, I don’t really know what to say.”
Clearly, there was nothing intentional on Larson’s part. And although Chad Knaus reminded the driver to “keep it light” prior to addressing the media, time and again Larson has shown there’s no animosity towards his teammates.
“It’s just a product of being three-wide on pit road,” Larson said. “I had a good pit stop. I left my pit stall and was inside of Chase and the 6 car, who is pitted ahead of us, is coming out of his stall. I’m just trying to leave everyone as much room as possible as I can and the 6 is going much slower as we were approaching him. I was going to clobber him if I didn’t move up a little bit. So we made slight contact and all of that.
“I haven’t seen a replay. If I could have left more room (for Elliott) I would have. Things were happening fast, and the 6 (Keselowski) was basically at a stop in the lane, and I was just not trying to clobber him.”
If there were any lingering bad feelings stemming from the incident at Watkins Glen last year, Elliott has had plenty of time to get over it—and has.
“Our relationship actually has been good,” Elliott said. “We have a lot of dialogue. Like I said, we talked about it there after the race and that was it. There’s nothing more to really even discuss. When you talk about things and you get the whole picture of what’s going on and you have a discussion like adults and there’s really no need for anything else.
“Neither he or I care about what is said during the week, so at the end of the day, I think we’re both pretty performance-motivated and driven, and that’s where our focus is and we’ll continue to be.”
Elliott feels the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team is on the right track—and three top 10s in his last three starts back up his assessment. Still, Elliott, who was once the alpha driver at HMS, has dropped to third on the list.
While there isn’t a rivalry between the Nos. 5 and 9 in a traditional sense, having Larson earn the lion’s share of victories—16 compared to Elliott’s seven over the last three seasons—has to grate on the driver. Elliott hasn’t visited Victory Lane since last October at Talladega Superspeedway.
“To win, you got to be in the fight every week,” Elliott said. “You got to be in contention every week and you got to be relevant, right? For a large portion of the season, I just didn’t really even feel like we were relevant.
“We might have had a good run here and there or had a good finish, but we weren’t in contention and really battling with those guys that had pace throughout the event like we need to be, and like I feel like we’re capable of doing, too.”
Although Elliott failed to advance to the driver playoffs, he’s still running for the owner’s title. Both Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson have been adamant that they’re not riding out the season. The driver has seen significant progress since the postseason began.
“Kansas was super refreshing,” Elliott said. “I thought we were much improved. I thought I was doing a better job driving. Our pit stops are really good. Just the whole bit felt right, like everything felt solid and super satisfying because they put a lot of effort into being better. I put a lot of effort into pushing myself in more areas—in areas that I feel like need to be worked on.
“Anytime you put the effort and time in into different areas and you see the results be better and then you can kind of get that report card and it’d be an improvement, I think that’s encouraging for everyone involved in our group. So it was a solid day. Obviously, we didn’t win the race but we were up there battling with those guys that did.
“You got to do that every week and if you’re in that fight and you’re in that hunt, the wins and and things will fall. The good news is all the pieces of the puzzle in my mind are there. From a strategy standpoint, our pit stops are really good. It’s all there for us. We’ve just got to put it together. I thought this past weekend—and Darlington, too—but this past weekend, for sure, was fun and I enjoyed it.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
