AVONDALE, Ariz: Chase Elliott was doing everything he could to put his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro team in contention for not only the win but his second championship in Sunday’s Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway, but a mid-race restart spin and contact with the frontstretch wall eliminated the Hendrick Motorsports team from competition.
After struggling with the handling of his race in the opening stage and through the onset of Stage 2, following a green-flag pit stop during Stage 2 when he was told he would be short on fuel – his car came to life and gave the team what he believed a fighting chance to battle Joey Logano who had been dominating the race.
Following the race’s fourth caution for an incident in Turn 4, Elliott found himself the leader of the Championship 4 and opportunity to change the pace of the race for the Lap 201 restart.
As the cars screamed towards Turn 1, the cars fanned out in the dogleg, as Elliott went to protect his position on the track, contact from Ross Chastain sent the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet spinning and connecting with the inside safer barrier.
Elliott was able to drive away from the scene of the accident where he brought a battered race car to the attention of crew chief Alan Gustafson and his No. 9 crew. While on pit road, the team went to work fixing the damage they could and sending their driver back into battle – losing just one lap to the field.
On the restart, Elliott was able to maintain minimum speed which knocked his car off the damaged vehicle policy. Any chance, however, of being competitive was over.
Elliott soldiered on to a disappointing 28th-place finish.
Initially, the Dawsonville, Ga. native did not want to answer any questions about the contact with Chastain.
“Um, just want to say Congratulations to Joey and his team,” said Elliott. “They did a really good job this entire weekend and he’s a very deserving champion and frankly, just happy for them. Proud of my team for the effort they put in this weekend.
“Felt like we got our car a lot better throughout the race and for that, I think we should be very proud. It was nice to make the round, that’s a very difficult thing to do. Obviously, not content with that, but certainly nice to come out here and have a shot and hopefully we come back stronger next year and give ourselves another chance and make it go our way next time.”
Later, after having some time to cool-off, the regular season Cup Series champion gave a short but brief overview on what he felt like happened 111 laps shy of the finish.
“Yeah, I’m not sure,” added Elliott. “I’m not sure. Looking forward to the off-season, and really proud of our team for the fight that we put in today. I felt like we just kind of peaked right there before we crashed, and I felt like we got our car driving pretty good, we just had our best pit stop of the day, so that was all really solid. And heck, we were right there next to the 22 (Logano).
“I thought we had a shot at it all the way up until we didn’t, and that’s unfortunately the way it goes sometimes.”
While proud of his team’s accomplishments this season, which included five wins, Elliott shot a vibe that he was ready for the offseason and not at all even thinking of the 2023 season.
“I don’t really care about 2023 right now,” sounded Elliott. “We had five wins on the season, and we had — you tell me what the stats are. That’s how you would assess it, right? I know we won five races. That’s more than we did last year.”
Rest assured though, Elliott realizes that the downtime will be short-lived, but he’ll be ready to get back after when the NASCAR Cup Series ignites its 2023 schedule in February.
“I think we certainly have a target to look at as we go into next year,” he explained. “Yeah, when the time comes, we’ll go to work on it.
“But that’s not today. I can assure you that. We’re going to enjoy a little time off, just like a lot of you guys are. It’s a long season. A lot of effort goes into this deal. And yeah, looking forward to that.
“But yeah, when we get back to Daytona next year, we’ll be ready to go, and we will put the focus on the things that we feel like we need to put them on and see where we stack up then.”
Elliott added, “But do not tell me what the countdown clock is because I don’t want to know.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
