Earnhardt Jr takes blame for Elliott slide at – Sports News
Dale Earnhardt Jr took the blame for Chase Elliott coming up short in his bid for the checkered flag at Chicagoland.
Racing within the No. 88 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports within the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, Elliott ran a stellar race up till the ultimate restart, when he fell behind Brandon Jones on the ultimate straightaway and got here in second place by 0.171 seconds.
It marked the primary time Elliott, a former Cup Series champion in 2020, obtained behind the wheel for Earnhardt Jr.’s JRM in NOAPS this season because of his full-time standing within the Cup Series with Hendrick Motorsports.
Earnhardt Jr. admitted after the race that he felt he and his group let Elliott down at Chicagoland.
“That was frustrating because I wanted Chase to win because Chase has fun in our car, I wanted to give him a good enough car to win and I don’t think we did,” Earnhardt stated on his podcast, Dale Jr. Download.
Elliott managed a lot of the race as NASCAR made its return to the Joliet, Illinois-based observe for the primary time since 2019. After beginning eleventh, he labored via the sector, led 78 laps, and appeared poised for a momentum-building win earlier than the race flipped with the ultimate restart.
Former JRM star Brandon Jones overtook Elliott after the restart and took the checkered flag within the first NOAPS race to require additional time this season. It marked the Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s first win within the sequence this calendar yr. Jones beforehand drove for Earnhardt Jr.’s group for two seasons in 2023 and 2024.
“You’ve got to give Brandon Jones his flowers,” Dale Jr. stated. “Shoutout to him just doing a hell of a job on that final restart. He got a great position going down the back straightaway on Chase and off into Turn 3, Chase just buried it in there but couldn’t outperform the No. 20 car on the top.”
Elliott will subsequent race for JRM within the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 25.
In whole, 4 JRM vehicles completed inside the top-12, together with Connor Zilisch, who began the race in pole place and gained Stage 1 earlier than operating out of fuel and dropping all the way in which back to twenty sixth. The 19-year-old ended up ending tenth.
Despite the JRM vehicles displaying great velocity all through the race, Dale Jr. was disillusioned with the ultimate outcomes and pitted the blame on he and his group.
“Connor had a bada– car at the start of the race,” Dale Jr. stated of Zilisch. “Then we ran him out of gas.”
“It wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t just one of those things. It was a mistake on our part.”
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