By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
It was an eventful weekend at Long Pond Pennsylvania’s Pocono Raceway for Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott, but not in the ways he would have hoped.
During opening practice on Saturday morning, Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet made contact with the wall coming out of Turn 1, extensively damaging the right-rear.
“I just made a mistake and crashed.” said Elliott. “I put myself in a pretty poor situation there in practice. I apologize to my guys here and the people back at the shop. It was just stupid. That’s what you get when you make those mistakes.”
The damage forced his No. 9 crew to bring out the back-up car for Sunday afternoon’s Gander RV 400.
.@chaseelliott jumps in to help the @NAPARacing team finalize the back-up car.
Final practice has begun at @poconoraceway and the team expects to get on the track and make some laps. pic.twitter.com/usGteqc2NA
— No. 9 Team (@Hendrick9Team) July 27, 2019
Elliott wound up only making three laps during final practice, wrapping up the day 26th on the speed charts.
While Elliott qualified his Chevrolet to a 23rd starting spot, hauling out the back-up car ultimately forced him to start Sunday’s event at the rear of the field.
Starting at the rear seemed to put little to no damper on Elliott’s day early on as he quickly made his way up to the 19th position in just five green flag laps.
Early adjustments made during the first round of pit stops had Elliott pleased with his car, ultimately finishing out Stage 1 in the 14th position.
Elliott pitted for four tires and fuel during the break in between stages one and two.
Restarting the event in 22nd wouldn’t hold Elliott back, on Lap 66 he had already cracked the Top-10, and was steadily moving forward.
Pit stop for four tires & fuel during the stage break. #NAPA9 #di9 pic.twitter.com/98r4Gwhilz
— No. 9 Team (@Hendrick9Team) July 28, 2019
Unfortunately, on Lap 82, Elliott’s day would be short lived when he blew a right front tire, making contact with the wall in Turn 3 while running in the sixth position.
The damage was extensive enough that he would bring his NAPA Chevrolet to the garage, ending his hopes of finding victory lane at The Tricky Triangle.
The finish relegated him to a 38th place finish and back-to-back weeks of tough luck.
Last weekend left Elliott seeing similar results when he finished 29th in the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 from New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“It’s unfortunate. It’s been a really tough, heck I guess a month, little over a month now. You know, unfortunate just rough patch, hopefully we can get past it.” said Elliott. “The good news is we’re still in the summer months, you know so the stuff that really matters is still ahead. I just hate to come to these places and not get to learn something from it.”
“I feel like our day had finally turned around for our NAPA team. We were finally moving forward. Got inside, I don’t know where we were, Top-10 there when we crashed. So, I just felt like we were finally getting our car going, obviously crashed yesterday so this car was taking some time to get adjusted.”
The Dawsonville, Georgia native will now set his sights on the 22nd race of the season, the Go Bowling at The Glen next Sunday afternoon at Watkins Glen International.
One year ago, Elliott claimed his first career victory in NASCAR’s premiere series at the famed road course located in New York.
Elliott heads to Watkins Glen with one win on the season coming at Talladega earlier in the season, six Top-5s, seven Top-10s, two pole awards, 409 laps led and currently sits 8th in the points standings.