Chase Elliott drives the No. 17 during the Xfinity race at Pocono. (Photo: Sam Draiss | The Podium Finish)
LONG POND, PA. – NASCAR Cup Series regular Chase Elliott raced with the Xfinity Series at Pocono Raceway on Saturday afternoon, and brought home a third place finish.
Elliott drove an extra race with the Xfinity Series on Saturday afternoon during the Explore the Pocono Mountains 225. Elliott was driving the No. 17 for Hendrick Motorsports in his first race back in the Xfinity Series this season.
The Dawsonville, Georgia native had a decent start to the Xfinity Series side of his weekend, qualifying 13th on Friday afternoon. The first part of the race did not have much different results at all for Elliott in the No. 17, with a 12th place Stage 1 finish followed by a 11th place Stage 2 finish.
During the last stage, however, Elliott’s fortune changed substantially. The 27-year-old worked his way to the lead by Lap 61, and took a green flag pit stop on Lap 70. After a caution came out, a short 10 laps after crew chief Greg Ives had brought Elliott to pit road, Elliott was able to gain back a majority of the position he had lost. He was also able to avoid late race cautions from the back of the field to secure his third place finish.
After the race, Elliott was pleased with his day over all, but was reflective of what he could have done differently to secure a different result when the checkered flag waved.
“I thought it was okay,” Elliott said. “I don’t think I did anything special by any means, but we ended up with a solid result. I just needed to recognize what I needed in the car a little sooner so I could relay that to the team.”
The Hendrick driver was asked in an interview about what he thought he had learned from the Xfinity race because he will be back in his usual No. 9 car on Sunday for the Cup Series race at Pocono, and he thought restarts may be the best information that would be able to transfer from the Xfinity to Cup Series cars.
“They are just so different now,” Elliott said. “I think other than just having some reps at the track and maybe some tendencies on restarts and lanes maybe. They’re just different. Very, very different. We’ll see. We might get to tomorrow and it might be very similar in some areas, but I think it’ll be a good bit different.”
Elliott is still winless for the 2023 season and 60 points outside of the playoffs. The No. 9 team is approaching a must win scenario very fast, so extra laps may be just what Elliott needed to lock himself into the playoffs for a chance to race for the championship.
