By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Chase Elliott had plenty of pace in the closing laps of Sunday’s Go Bowling at Watkins Glen International.
The only thing he lacked was time.
Gaining multiple seconds on Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson, the final laps saw Elliott close within 2.5 seconds of the race lead. However, there weren’t enough laps — and too many issues — to win for the third straight time at The Glen.
“Yeah, I made too many mistakes to get the win, unfortunately, and made it too late in the race,” Elliott said. “Super proud of our team. Been kind of an uphill battle all day, but everybody was just super prepared coming into the day, and our NAPA team just did a really good job of fighting it.”
.@chaseelliott gets by MTJ and sets his sights on his teammate, @KyleLarsonRacin and the 🏁. pic.twitter.com/4v4VZlIrGG
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 8, 2021
The day started with troubles for Elliott, who was pushed to the rear of the field after his No. 9 failed pre-race inspection and was accessed an L1 penalty (crew chief Alan Gustafson was ejected from the race and the team lost 10 driver and owner points and saw a $25,000 fine).
From there, Elliott clawed his way through the pack, earning stage points in the 20-lap Stage 1. But with too big a gap behind Larson, runner-up is all he had, even with his best ever car at The Glen.
“That’s the frustrating part; that was the best we’ve been here,” he said. “I’m proud of that but you hate to bring, as a group, your best effort and not get the result.
“If I hadn’t have let [the team] down there, I think we would have had a shot at it,” he said. “But congrats to Kyle [Larson], Cliff [Daniels, crew chief], all the guys on the No. 5. Happy for everybody at HMS.
“Hendrick Motorsports has been working extremely hard, and not only do the people deserve to win, but Mr. Hendrick deserves to win. Really happy for him, and I’ll try to clean some things up and make less mistakes next time. Maybe it’ll work out.”
" I made too many mistakes to get the win" — @chaseelliott on his runner-up finish at @WGI. pic.twitter.com/jyGtoCZciJ
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 8, 2021
A tale of two teammates. pic.twitter.com/6BfRBQed4P
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 8, 2021