Chase Elliott hits nail on the head with Gustafson – Sports News
Amidst criticism from some corners of NASCAR fandom of Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Alan Gustafson, Chase Elliott has leapt to his colleague’s protection after an underwhelming Seventeenth-place end at the Cook Out Southern 500.
The Cup Series Playoff opening race was a tough expertise throughout for Hendrick, with Elliott’s teammate Kyle Larson ending nineteenth, William Byron in twenty first, and, after a disastrous 40-second pit stop, Alex Bowman in thirty first.
While not disastrous, Elliott’s race was removed from memorable, with clashes on monitor with Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar resulting in the teen lashing out at the Hendrick star over his group radio, whereas an sadly scheduled pit stop added to a forgettable night in Darlington.
Reflecting on the Round of 16 opener, the 29-year-old described it as “a really long night,” when talking with NBC Sports post-race. “Yeah, we had clawed our way up to the top 10 and tried to run really long on that one run,” Elliott mentioned.
“Everyone was being real aggressive with short-pitting, so we tried to run long. And then yeah, as soon as we did that, the caution came out. It was honestly laughable at that juncture.
“Just came in and had an issue on pit road, had to put our heads down and grind out a top last. Just keep pushing at it. It’s been a long night for sure. We’ve got to put our heads together to try to figure out how to be better at Gateway and how to go faster.”
Despite this disappointing end result, marking his fifth end outdoors the prime 10 in the final six races, Elliott didn’t place the blame on Gustafson, with whom he has labored since the 2016 season.
“I can think of a couple situations, like recently, where we’ve made some decisions and just either haven’t caught the caution or did catch the caution at the wrong time, and that can be the difference in you literally looking like a hero and, you know, looking like you just did the dumbest thing ever,” Elliott mentioned, by way of Essentially Sports. “And that’s of no one’s fault, however that’s simply the manner the race unfolded.”
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Elliott and the Hendrick group can be hoping Gateway, or World Wide Technology Raceway, can act as a recent begin forward of the remaining Round of 16 race at Bristol Motor Speedway a week later. In two prior appearances at the Enjoy Illinois 300, Elliott has completed twenty first and thirteenth, whereas Hendrick has but to succeed in victory lane at the monitor because it was added to the calendar in 2022.
Heading into Sunday’s race, the Playoff image is blended for the group, with Larson comparatively comfy in third, 38 factors above the cutoff line, whereas Byron is sixth, with a 25-point cushion. However, Elliott enters the race down in eleventh, simply 9 factors clear of hazard, whereas Bowman has a lot of work to do in fifteenth, 19 factors under the line.
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