Chase Elliott Solid In Richmond Sprint Cup Effort

RICHMOND, VA - APRIL 26: Chase Elliott, driver of the #25 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway on April 26, 2015 in Richmond, Virginia. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
RICHMOND, VA - APRIL 26:  Chase Elliott, driver of the #25 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway on April 26, 2015 in Richmond, Virginia.  (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
RICHMOND, VA – APRIL 26: Chase Elliott, driver of the #25 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway on April 26, 2015 in Richmond, Virginia. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

Quietly, Chase Elliott had a solid performance in Sunday’s postponed Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

While the reigning NASCAR XFINITY Series champion contended for a top-10 finish late, the Dawsonville, Georgia native eventually settled for a respectable 16th-place finish in his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start of the season. The effort was a worthy recovery from his Sprint Cup Series debut at Martinsville Speedway last month where an early race accident resulted in a disappointing 38th-place finish.

“I felt like we had a really solid day overall,” said Elliott, who finished fifth in Friday night’s XFINITY Series race. “I was a little disappointed though there at the end that I fell back and then couldn’t get going at the restart. But overall, everybody on our NAPA team did great this weekend.”

Elliott, one of nine double-duty drivers this weekend at Richmond added, “I thought we had a fast car, especially in race trim. The guys made good adjustments to qualify where we did. We had a great car on the long run. We could really run well and run some guys down late in the run.

“Unfortunately, it always comes down to the short runs in these things. So, we’ll try to get better and hopefully try to have a better effort at Charlotte.”

Elliott, the soon-to-be successor of Jeff Gordon’s No. 24 in 2016 will attempt his third of five Cup races this season at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the series’ longest race of the year, the Coca-Cola 600 on May 24.

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.