(Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
LOUDON, N.H. — Chase Elliott seemed well-positioned to score his third NASCAR Cup Series victory in four races, but a late pass for the lead by Christopher Bell relegated Elliott to second at New Hampshire.
“I need to do better,” a frustrated Elliott told reporters. “The guys who belong here and do a good job week-to-week are in contention to win races very often would have finished that one off.”
Elliott qualified for Sunday’s Ambetter 301 in second despite saying he was unhappy with the car. At the initial start of the race, Bubba Wallace passed Elliott for second and he finished Stage 1 in fourth behind teammate Kyle Larson.
On Lap 90, Michael McDowell, Harrison Burton and Corey LaJoie crashed exiting Turn 2, causing a caution. Elliott and others pitted for fuel but crew chief Alan Gustafson called him back to pit road a second time to tighten lug nuts. He surrendered track position and restarted behind all of the lead-lap cars.
By Lap 130, Elliott wheeled back up to eighth and finished Stage 2 in third place. Elliott pitted at the end of Stage 2 for tires and fuel while Chase Briscoe, Harrison Burton and Kyle Busch all stayed out. Briscoe led five laps until Martin Truex Jr., who dominated most of the race, took back the lead.
The caution came out on Lap 206 for a Todd Gilliland spin and the leaders again pitted. Elliott took four tires and fuel while Truex Jr. took just two tires. Kurt Busch and Joey Logano stayed out and took the top two positions. Truex Jr. struggled on the restart while Busch pulled away and led 40 laps.
On Lap 247, Elliott closed in on Busch and took the lead from him. But, 13 laps later, Bell passed Elliott and won the race after “poor execution”.
“When I got the lead there, I just didn’t do a good job of controlling the event,” Elliott said. “I didn’t put any laps together in a row to stretch the lead when I needed to do that [and] get myself a gap.
“[Bell] just did a better job driving it. He probably could have won the race in my car.”
Elliott finished in the top 10 for the 14th time this season, maintaining a tie with Ross Chastain for the most in the Cup Series. A victory would have been the 17th in his career.
Instead, he’ll refocus toward Pocono Raceway and the M&M’s Fan Appreciation 400. In 12 starts at Pocono, he has three top fives and an average finish of 15.2.
“They’ve been bringing fast cars to the track,” Elliott said. “We just got to do a better job finishing them off — I need to do a better job finishing the races off when we have control of them like that.”
