AVONDALE, Ariz. — Unlike Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney or Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott doesn’t have a realistic chance to advance to the Championship 4 on points—and he knows it.
“Our task at hand is pretty simple,” said the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, who trails Keselowski by 49 points for the final spot at Homestead. “We have to win the race to move on next week. Everybody in here knows that. We know that and we are going to try to attack the weekend as best we can.
“Hopefully, give ourselves a chance to do that Sunday afternoon and see what happens. That’s pretty straightforward what we have to do with the situation we’re in now. It’s not the most ideal situation, but if you were able to pull it off, it would be a lot of momentum moving into next week. We’ll give it our best shot and see what happens.”
Elliott got off to a strong start on Friday afternoon with a fourth-place qualifying effort. He was second fastest behind Kevin Harvick in Saturday’s first practice session but dropped to 17th in Happy Hour when the one-mile track at Phoenix Raceway got hotter and slicker—closer to the conditions he’ll face in Sunday’s Can-Am 500.
Elliott was within four laps of winning the opening race in the Playoff’s Round of 8 at Martinsville when Hamlin drove him into the Turn 3 wall. But Elliott would prefer not to dwell on what might have been.
“You can play the game of ‘what if’s,’ but unfortunately for our circumstances, this is a sport of do’s and don’ts and we have not,” Elliott said. “I’ve said that before. It’s just the facts. What happened last week or a month ago or the beginning of the season or having an opportunity to win and not—it’s nothing you can change now.
“I think you just have to understand whatever position that you’re in and hope that you learn something from that experience to know that, if you’re ever in that position again, you can change the outcome.”
Source: Reid Spencer / NASCAR Wire Service
