Chase Elliott takes to the streets of Chicago for the inaugural Grant Park 220. (Photo: Kevin Bowman | The Podium Finish)
CHICAGO — Chase Elliott had a memorable weekend in Chicago, finishing the inaugural Cup Series race at the Chicago Street Course in third place.
Elliott finished the race contending for a much-needed win, but his weekend did not start off as smoothly. The Dawsonville, Georgia native qualified 26th after hitting the wall in Turn 8 of the brand-new course. During the practice session just prior to qualifying, Elliott was only able to get slightly better results, logging the 20th fastest lap after 19 laps.
However, after starting from the rear in a backup car, Elliott showed impressive speed and was able to work his way into 11th place by lap 25 of the race but then got into the wall in Turn 2.
The 27-year-old drove his way through the field again by Stage 3, where fuel and time remaining in the race became what stood between him and his first win of the season.
Elliott was specifically pleased with the resilience his team showed throughout the weekend in the post-race press conference.
“Well, first off, I really appreciated everyone on our Hooters team for just fighting all weekend,” Elliott said. “I did not do a very good job yesterday, obviously crashing and crashing again today and just kept putting us in big holes. So I have to certainly be better, but I appreciate the effort. and the willingness to keep firing by everybody on our team. I appreciated that and looking forward to going back to work and trying to get better.”
Elliott also congratulated this week’s winner, Shane van Gisbergen, who is a Supercars racer that was driving for Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91 this weekend.
“Huge congratulations to Shane [van Gisbergen], man that was a clinic,” Elliott said. “He made us look really, really bad. he is going to go home and tell all of his friends how bad we are. So, I am looking forward to getting to work and hopefully, we can figure out how to run with him at the front at the next one he comes to.”
Although this weekend was a roller coaster for Elliott and the No. 9 team, it ended up being a brighter spot in Elliott’s 2023 season, being his fifth top-five of the season.
Sunday’s race leaves Elliott 24th in point standings, 268 points behind leader Martin Truex Jr. With just eight races to go, the 2020 Cup Series Champion’s focus is getting locked into the playoffs, which will most likely need to happen by him getting a win with a sizable deficit this late in the season.
One of his best chances, fortunately for Elliott and his team, will come next week on his home track at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The Hendrick Motorsports driver won the July 2022 race at Atlanta, and got four consecutive top 10s in the four races prior, Atlanta is without a doubt a track Elliott is very comfortable.
Elliott and the rest of the Cup Series drivers will race at Atlanta next Sunday, July 9 at 7:00 pm ET on NBC.
