Already facing a must win situation to advance to the Championship 4, Chase Elliott saw all hope of victory end on lap 9 at Texas Motor Speedway Sunday.
After starting 14th, Elliott was running just outside the top 10 when his Chevy got loose in turn 2 and smacked the outside wall. He was able to continue but with heavy damage.
“Sorry about that, guys.” He said over the team radio. “I wasn’t even trying to push that hard.”
Elliott’s crew was able to affect repairs, but any hopes for a win, and most likely a championship in 2019 were gone. He finished 32nd, 22 laps down.
“I made a mistake, got loose and crashed,” Elliott said. “I really hate that happened. Obviously, it’s not good and not what you’re looking for. It’s just my mistake and there’s really no excuse for it.”
Sunday’s race comes a week after a broken axle at Martinsville left him with a 36th place finish 55 laps down. He leaves Texas eighth in the standings 78 points below the cutoff with a win in Phoenix the only way he can make it to the Championship 4.
“Obviously, today was very self-inflicted,” Elliott said. “I made a mistake that there’s really no excuse for and that’s what you get. You make mistakes, you put yourself in a bad position and that was all on me today. I hate that it happened, but it did and we’ll just go onto Phoenix and try to get a win out there.”
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.
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