Chase Elliott’s otherwise good season ended on a disappointing note as he finished last among the championship contenders.
It seemed like it was going to be another Elliott’s year as the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 driver already had five Cup race wins, the most among the Cup drivers. Additionally, he was also leading the points table until the last race of the season.
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However, a 28th-place finish ensured that he finished fourth among the four title rivals in the points standings. And all this came about as the Hendrick Motorsports driver made contact with title rival Ross Chastain. Following a restart on Lap 200, the two cars made contact, thereby sending the No.9 car sliding along the track.
A look at the contact between Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain from Ross’ view.
(via @NASCAR)pic.twitter.com/Cluq2cYDV9
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Elliott was in no mood to talk about the incident after the race and rather said that he was proud of the team. However, Hendrick Motorsport’s Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon didn’t hold his word in criticizing Chastain for the move.
“Well, you know you are not supposed to move out of your lane until you cross the Start-Finish line and that’s exactly what Chase did.” said Gordon
“And it’s not what I saw out of the #1. And you know, we don’t go to the bottom with a real aggressive move. Not unusual for him to do that. Never lifted, and turned Chase and he made contact with the wall. So, pretty much end to their day.”
“I love the way that Chase Elliott races. A lot of integrity earns a lot of respect with his competitors. And you know, it’s just frustrating him because he doesn’t feel like he gets raced the same way in return.”
The HMS Vice Chairman also focused on the effort his team put in throughout the year and congratulated the winners, Joey Logano and Team Penske.
“Really proud of the effort that they put in this. They had a heck of a year and thought they were in a great position to give Joey a run for his money for this championship.”
“But those guys, Joey and Penske, congrats to them. They did a fantastic job. Not only this year, but certainly today they earned it.”
It is certainly hard to take your title shot go to waste like the way it went for Elliott. What makes it harder is that the chance went by due to another title contender.
But given his form and age, it won’t be the last time we see the No. 9 driver battling for titles.
I always rooted for Jeff when he raced. But this time I disagree with him. Ross was just racing like everyone else was
Chase tried blocking Ross and it didn’t work all chases fault
Wasn’t Chase blocking another car while being laps down earlier this year? Yep, great, honorable guy.