“I didn’t do a very good job there,” Chase Elliott claims “a couple of mistakes” he made at the track cost him the win
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Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott
Chase Elliott came up short in Road America on Sunday as he was topped by Tyler Reddick in his race-defending run. The active Cup Racer with most Road Course win was surely hoping to secure his 8th win in such tracks which would have helped him to tie the tally for second-most road course race wins held by legend Tony Stewart, who is just one win short at record holder Jeff Gordon.
But it didn’t happen for Elliott as the 2022 season trend of the Road Course win being the career first cup win of drivers continued as Reddick marked his first win on his 92nd cup start with the two previous cup race winners of the season being the Trackhouse Racing duo of Ross Chastain who won at COTA and Daniel Suarez who won at Sonoma.
Chase Elliott who led 36 laps in the 62-lap race and was comfortably going for the win as he was able to even have a lead on Reddick on the final Green Flag pit stop. But things didn’t go as planned for him as Reddick for the first time in the whole race took the lead on lap 47 and was able to keep n healthy distance between him and Elliott to finally finish the race 3.3 seconds ahead of him.
Following the disappointing result, Chase Elliott in his post-race interview acknowledged that he made some mistakes mid-race in his intense dual with the eventual winner Tyler Reddick which came to bite him at the end. The No:9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy Camaro ZL1 driver acknowledged that he started struggling in the race following the costly mistakes.
Find out what Chase Elliott had to say about the P2 finish
Chase Elliott acknowledged that he didn’t do a very good job at the race as he left Reddick to stay close enough to pressure him which constrained him from getting a decent gap between them with the tire he had. He pointed out that a couple of mistakes on his part gave Reddick the opportunity to close him down and put him out of sync, which he claims to have caused his struggles.
“I didn’t do a very good job there (after the pit stop). I just let him stay close enough to pressure me there while we had decent tires and never could get enough of a gap. Made a couple of mistakes. I was gaining a gap there a couple of times and made a couple of mistakes and let him get back close enough to get me out of sync, and then after that just started struggling,” says Chase Elliott.
He went on to say that it was impressive how Reddick was able to take advantage of his mistake and get up to the top and making it super difficult to pass him after that. The 2020 cup champion added that being that close to winning with such a car is painful as he could have won the race if he did a better job.
“Obviously, it was super-difficult to get to somebody to pass them. It was impressive he was able to get up there and capitalize on my mistakes. Wish I could have done a better job there. I felt like we probably needed a little bit, but I think we were good enough to win, so those always hurt,” Chase Elliott added.
Chase Elliott congratulated Tyler Reddick for his first career win as he pointed out that he has been on that path of rocky run-in search of his first win with so many close calls before. He went on to say that he is happy for the efforts out of the No:8 team as they deserve the win. He pointed out that as the season processes and teams understand the cars more the starting positions will become a premium for the drivers.
“Congrats to him. I know he’s been super-close to that first win, and I’ve been down that road and it can be a rocky one. I’m happy for those guys. They deserve it. As the season goes on and … we learn what everybody needs in their vehicles, every car is going to become the same manufacturer to manufacturer. And as that becomes the case, the track position is going to become more and more of a premium. That’s just motorsports nowadays. Aero is huge, and you can’t unlearn, so that’s the road we’re on,” Chase Elliott said.
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Justin P Joy
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