Chase Elliott is back at Sonoma Raceway (Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)
SONOMA, Calif. – Chase Elliott recorded a solid fifth place finish in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
It was a very respectable weekend for Elliott and his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro team, beginning with him qualifying in the 10th position with a 78.460 second lap around the Northern California road course.
Although he logged top 10 speed during qualifying, Elliott seemed to struggle to maintain quite as much speed early in the race, with a 12th place Stage 1 finish followed by a 16th place Stage 2 finish.
However, Elliott was able to rally and find more speed throughout Stage 3 to secure a fifth place finish in the 110 lap race.
Elliott seemed pleased with his day overall, reflecting on the late race strategy decisions that he felt contributed to his finish.
“It’s nice to get a top-five, no doubt, so proud of that,” Elliott said. “We were trying to do something a little different with strategy. We had pit about six or eight laps there before that caution. We just felt like our only play was to stay out.
“I was really hoping that more people would do that with us so we’d have three or four rows. It still probably wouldn’t have been enough, but I do think it would have been nicer to have a couple more rows and a buffer for those with tires.”
The Hendrick Motorsports driver is no stranger, though, to solid road course finishes, after getting his first win at Watkins Glen, along with six other road course wins throughout his seven full seasons with the Cup Series and four top 10 finishes last season alone at road courses.
“It was certainly a good fight for the No. 9 NAPA Chevy team,” he said. “It was one of our better runs there in the last couple of races, so always good to finish strong. It wasn’t an ideal situation, so to kind of fight through it there and come home with a top five is good. Looking forward to build on that and hopefully contend for a win before long.”
Many people will be watching Elliott in the coming weeks to see if that momentum does, in fact, build because it is a much needed thing after the less than desirable season he has had so far.
Notably, this was the Dawsonville, Georgia native’s first race back from his one race suspension after NASCAR ruled that he intentionally moved his bumper to Denny Hamlin’s right rear quarter panel during the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Also, Elliott recently recovered from a broken tibia from a snowboarding accident in Colorado.
Now, it seems his season could be improving, and the 2020 Cup Series champion may be well on his way to finding the momentum that he, his team as well as his fans are used to seeing. While the series is off for Father’s Day weekend, Elliott and his rivals return for the third annual Ally 400 race weekend at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, June 25.
