Chase Elliott was not quite able to battle for the win despite an impressive comeback drive after being spun by Ross Chastain at COTA.
Chase Elliott’s afternoon under the glaring Texas sun proved far from ideal as he failed to capitalize on an excellent qualifying performance during Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, won by Christopher Bell.
Having qualified his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet third behind the 23XI Racing duo of Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace, Elliott’s race got off to a painful start.
Turning into the first corner, Elliott found himself the victim of a late lunge by an aggressive Ross Chastain, looking to sneak up the inside from ninth.
Spun in the incident, Elliott was left dead last while Connor Zilisch, Todd Gilliland, and Denny Hamlin were all also caught up in the crash.
“I just wish we could put together a clean day,” he said. “It just sucks to fall behind that early. I thought we had a great NAPA Chevy yesterday, and I would have just liked to have seen how we would have stacked up to those guys today. That’s all.
“Just bummed that we get behind and have damage and got to fix it and it never drives like it did yesterday, and it’s just like, man, I would just would have loved a shot at it without having to try to piece it back together with the tow and all that stuff, but a great recovery for sure. I just hate we had to recover. That’s the part that sucks.”
