TALLADEGA, Ala. – Chase Elliott saw his hopes for victory in Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway evaporate when he realized he was on a Chevrolet island in a sea of Fords.
Though Elliott tried to put his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in a position to win on the final lap, his efforts were largely futile, thanks to the fact that he couldn’t get any of the Blue Oval drivers to work with him in the draft.
With Joey Logano out front and Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in tow, Elliott had no one in close proximity who could give him a push strong enough to do battle with the Ford brigade.
That left Elliott with no way forward and only a third-place finish to show for his efforts at the end of the day, something that he was visibly disappointed with after climbing from his car.
“That finish was definitely interesting,” Elliott said. “In the last few laps, I was really trying to make a run and do something there at the end, but those guys were being awfully patient with one another. I was very surprised. I mean, it was more than obvious that they were not going to help me move forward.
“Honestly, I really thought they would want to win a little more than what they did, or at least showed to me. I tried to break out of line and do a couple things there, but like I said, it was very obvious that nobody was going to help me that was around me. It’s hard to move forward without that help. Even if I had just had one other person to help, I feel like it would have made a big difference, but it could have been a lot worse.”
Though he never led a lap all day, Elliott averaged a 13th-place running position and spent more than 60 percent of the race inside the top 15.
“We had a solid car,” noted Elliott. “I don’t think it was the best car today, but we had a good car. I think we just lacked a little bit of speed from where we’ve been at the (restrictor) plate tracks, maybe. Our team did a nice job overcoming a little bit of damage in the middle portion of the race, though, and Alan made a good call there towards the end to ultimately get us some track position and give a shot.”
Elliott also pointed out that the patience of the field wasn’t just limited to the Ford drivers. Very few people wanted to make a lot of moves in the closing laps because of the instability of their cars in the draft on Sunday.
That was punctuated by the race’s big accident with 23 to go, when Jimmie Johnson came down to cover rookie William Byron and the shift in air sent both cars spinning into the pack, collecting 14 cars in total.
“It was a pretty wild afternoon. The cars were hard to drive,” said Elliott. “I think that may have scared some people off from running three‑wide and four‑wide. That was interesting, as well. All in all, a decent day, but very different from what I expected.”
