The Bass Pro Shops Night Race in Bristol, Tennessee was a survival race. On a race that saw 12 of the 16 NASCAR Cup Series playoff drivers face some sort of problem, 3 of the 4 that didn’t all reside in the same camp.
The 3 cars that Team Penske saw face right front tire problems finished 20th, 27th and 30th.
There were tire problems for Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, and Martin Truex Jr. Their alliance team in 23XI Racing had power steering issues and they ended up in the middle of the pack.
Both drivers were involved in a crash at the same time. They would finish 25 and 31st.
Aric Almirola had a mechanical problem and Kevin Harvick had a pit stop.
If you come to the checkered flag with clean cars, you get by default top 5’s.
Alex would have joined them if he hadn’t gotten collected in the same crash that dropped him to 32nd.
There was a exit in the pit lane. He had to settle for second place after crossing the finish line.458-seconds behind the winner.
He said he liked his car. I didn’t think our Hooters Chevrolet was bad, and honestly, I don’t think I could ask for anything more balance wise.
I need to be able to get in some different lanes. The top dominated there at the end. As the night went on the top got better and better, and that was hard to beat, the bottom was pretty good early in the night.
We weren’t able to get any lap traffic to make him move, but we were starting to there in the last three or four laps.
I wasn’t close enough to do anything with him to feel like we were gaining. The effort is appreciated. Yesterday was a long day. I was proud of the way I battled back from a bad start to get a top 2.
Looking forward to some more opportunities here in the next few weeks.
It was difficult for him to want to win here.
Bristol Motor Speedway and the Bass Pro Shops Night Race have a special place in the heart of ChaseElliott.
The environment here is so cool, that’s why I think Bristol is next to it for me. When I was a kid, this was one of the biggest races I had ever been to.
For five years, you couldn’t get a ticket for this event. If you weren’t talking about it in the early 2000’s, you weren’t living up to my expectations, because it was just one of those events that everyone wanted to be at.
The Night Race helped shape his decision to follow in the footsteps of his dad.
One of the races that made me want to be a race car driver was this one.
This event is special because the environment here is unparalleled. I don’t see another date or track on our schedule that can match this environment.
Seven of the 13 Cup Series starts have taken place in the night race. The All-Star race was one of the ones he won. He is 0-for-12 in the pointspaying races. He has been close before.
While he was 25th last year, he had a run-in with Kevin Harvick which cut down a tire and forced him to have a pit stop. The leader of last year’s race was Elliott. On Saturday night, he was second.
He was able to turn his luck around.
I wondered if he was rattling off top 2 after finishing in the top 2. It could have been argued that Chase could have won all 5 races in that period. In a 7 race span, he had 5 top 5 finishes.
Is it too early?
This has happened in sports over the years. The teams peak too soon. It is possible for others to get hot at the right time. Is it possible that he began his ascension too early?
His last 3 finishes were all in the top 25. He has finished outside the top 10 in five of his last seven races. He is safe for this round because of his playoffs points. Going into the race, he was +28 on the cutline.
I knew that could happen. I don’t believe anyone is safe. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to have the points and I’m happy that we had a good regular season, but nobody is safe in these rounds.
We would like to do better. We want to have a chance to win every week. I believe we can do that. We need to put it all together and execute good races.
This was his 2nd straight 3rd place finish here and he finished 8th, 6th and 3rd.
He had 2nd top 5 in the last 8 races and 3rd top in the last 5. He had 7 top 10s in the last 8 Bristol tries, 6 of which were in the top 6.