Chase Elliott in must win situation
If Chase Elliott advances to the Championship 4, he will need to win at ISM Raceway next Sunday (November 10) to have a shot at his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title.
Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet sustained damage in a lap 9 crash during the AAA Texas 500 Sunday (November 3), relegating the Hendrick Motorsports driver to a 32nd-place finish, 21 laps down.
“I made a mistake, got loose and crashed,” Elliott said. “I really hate that happened. Obviously, it’s not good and not what you’re looking for. It’s just my mistake and there’s really no excuse for it. It’s just all eyes on Phoenix.”
Entering Texas, Elliott was 44 points behind the cutline after a 36th-place finish at Martinsville. The 23-year-old driver is now 78 points behind the cutline.
Under the current points system, a driver can gain up to 59 points on a driver in one race.
“Today was very self-inflicted,” Elliott said. “I made a mistake that there’s really no excuse for and that’s what you get.
“You make mistakes, you put yourself in a bad position and that was all on me today. I hate that it happened, but it did and we’ll just go onto Phoenix and try to get a win out there.”
In seven starts at the 1-mile raceway, Elliott has earned two top-five finishes and four top-10 finishes. His highest finish was a runner-up finish in the November 2017 race.
Elliott has never advanced to the Championship 4 round of the playoffs.
BELOW THE CUTLINE
Entering next Sunday’s Bluegreen Vacations 500, Denny Hamlin (-20 points), Ryan Blaney (-23 points) and Kyle Larson (-23 points) are also below the playoff cutline.
Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. are guaranteed berths to the Championship 4 via their victories at Texas and Martinsville respectively.
The Bluegreen Vacations 500 at ISM Raceway (Phoenix) is scheduled for Sunday, November 10.
SOURCES
Racing-Reference.info
Team Chevrolet
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Dominic Aragon View All
Dominic Aragon is currently the editor-in-chief for The Racing Experts.
From Grants, New Mexico, USA, Aragon started watching NASCAR in 2004 and has been covering the sport since 2009. Aragon is a 2012 graduate of Grants High School and a May 2016 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a B.A. in Mass Communications & Journalism. Aragon has worked in local and national media, as a musician, and an educator. He is co-author of the 2024 book "All of It: Daytona 500 Champion Tells the Rest of the Story" with racer Geoff Bodine.
Aragon, his wife Feliz, and son Christopher currently reside in Grants, New Mexico, USA.
You can reach Dominic at daragon@theracingexperts.net.