By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Chase Elliott and Justin Allgaier were 1-2 when contact was made in Turn 1 on a late-race restart Saturday at Pocono Raceway.
But when sophomore driver Jesse Love attempted an inside move into Turn 1, three wide proved to be too tight for driver No. 7 of Allgaier, who drifted wide and into the No. 17 of Elliott.
The two slid high, forfeiting numerous positions and opening the door for Love and eventual race winner Connor Zilisch to squeeze past.
Elliott, who fell to ninth, managed to re-cope his losses to finish fourth.
“[Allgaier] just ran in there too hard and caught a bad section of air, something weird,” Elliott said. “He turned sideways and at that point, I just saw him coming toward my door really fast. What do I do? Give him the space or crowd him and crash?
“It was up to me if we were gonna have two destroyed racecars. At that point, we were screwed. Not worth tearing up the shit for no reason.”
The Cup Series champion was running his final race of 2025 with Hendrick Motorsports, leading a race-high 38 laps. Additionally, he earned his first Xfinity pole since his rookie year in 2014.
But in a game of inches, the critical restart was what ended his chances at winning.
“I have a lot of respect for Justin,” he continued. “We’ve always raced each other with a lot of respect, and have equally as much away from the track, too. I don’t have any ill will against him.
“I hate that he made a mistake with me [laughs] considering it’s my last one for the year.”
Elliott relishes his chances of running the second-tier series before transitioning to his No. 9 Cup car on Sunday.
“The ole’ Hendrick Cars [No.] 17 is pretty fast right now. I was wanting to cash in on that while that’s the case.
“Look, any time you have cars that are that fast it’s fun. Somedays it’s just not totally going to go your way and that was unfortunately us today.”