Chase Elliott was lucky to finish P3 at Darlington in Bill Elliott inspired Chevy

Chase Elliott started from P21 and finished P3 at the Darlington Raceway.

Chase Elliott was lucky to finish P3 at Darlington in Bill Elliott inspired Chevy

Chase Elliott (Image via CNN)

Chase Elliott kickstarted his weekend by leading the NASCAR Cup practice at Darlington. However, he qualified for P21 and had to start the race from the eleventh row. Elliott spent most of his race trying to navigate the pack. Toward the end, he avoided a late crash and reached the top five. The 27-year-old claimed it was a solid finish before getting into the details of the race. 

Chase Elliott, one of the Hendrick Motorsports golden boys, drives the No.9 LLumar Chevy. He spoke about finishing third in the Goodyear 400 at the Darlington Raceway. Elliott finished behind his teammate William Byron and the Stewart Haas Racing’s No.4 Ford Mustang driver Kevin Harvick. The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion claims he struggled in the traffic while moving up to third place. 

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Chase Elliott stated, “It was a solid finish, for sure. I felt like our No. 9 LLumar Chevy was plenty good enough to go up there and battle with those guys to win. I just struggled so badly in traffic; way worse than other guys do driving this caliber of a car. Just feel like, from that standpoint, I’ve got a lot of work to do on my end. Obviously, we got really fortunate and lucky with those cautions coming out.”

Related: “I ran out of talent,” Ryan Newman ends his Next-Gen car debut in a disappointing P28 at Darlington

Chase Elliott was quite hard on himself despite a heroic finish

No.9 LLumar Chevy (Image via NASCAR)
No.9 LLumar Chevy (Image via NASCAR)

He added, “I feel like our car was plenty good, really, throughout the whole day. I just do such a terrible job getting up through traffic. I get stalled out behind guys, and I just feel like people driving cars like mine don’t do that. They tend to get up through there and get to where they belong”

Elliott credited his crew chief Alan Gustafson and the team for doing their job by preparing good race cars. He claimed the pitstops kept him in the game the entire race and believes they got fortunate with the cautions. Elliott was fighting for the track position, and once he had it in the final stage, there was a dramatic incident. He was almost involved in a crash between Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano with just 13 laps left. 

Though there was contact for Elliott during the race, he stayed calm and went on to finish without having an issue. The Goodyear 400 was his best race of the season. It was his third top ten finishes in the last five races since he returned to action from the snowboarding injury. Elliott has amassed 163 points and improved from 32nd to 28th place in the Cup Series. 

Elliott believes he is on the right path, and a win might put him in the NASCAR playoffs. The former Cup Series champion praised and thanked his team for the solid weekend. He is happy with the third place though he wants to improve in the upcoming races. Chase Elliott claims the team is making small gains and would strive to get more. 

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