Coming off a stellar rookie season not seen in many years, Chase Elliott looked to capitalize on a spectacular run through Speedweeks 2017.
He kicked it off by taking the pole position for the 59th running of the Daytona 500 and winning the first Can-Am Duel race, giving him a 10-point head-start on the season.
So naturally, February 26, 2017, looked promising for the son of 1988 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott. While he didn’t win either of the first two stages, he found himself in the lead with 27 laps to go and his chances shot higher when the lead pack formed into a single-file line running against the wall.
But with four laps to go, his fuel cell ran dry and he went from first to 14th.
After the race, he said it was a “disappointing” end to a great day.
“It was a disappointing finish to a good day,” he said. “Just one of those things you can’t do anything about.”
Elliott enters Daytona sixth in points and still in search of his first win. Which judging by his run at Daytona in February and Talladega in May, before getting caught up in a wreck with 20 to go, isn’t a long shot by any stretch of the imagination.
While meeting with the media today in the Daytona International Speedway deadline room, he said he felt “good” about his plate racing program and that it’s improved since he earned his first pole in the 2016 Daytona 500. He also went more in depth about his performance through Speedweeks.
“I feel like our race this past February, just the execution of the Duels, the whole 500 race and all that went really, really well,” he added. “We ran better throughout the whole course of the race in this past 500 than we did in 2016. We didn’t make it very far in 2016 but regardless I think our car was more suited to run well in the race this past year and I think I noticed that and it showed up and was pretty apparent when the race started.
“I think our car had the same tendencies and ability at Talladega this year but that didn’t go very well either. I thought our car was pretty fast and was able to do things that we would like to see in our race car and I could be that guy.
“When you talk about plate racing you want to be the guy that everybody wants to work with to push and help. If that is the case, then opportunities are going to be there that typically wouldn’t be if you were slower and couldn’t make a lane move forward. It’s really hard to see that in practice and see who is going to be that person or what cars are going to be those cars that you want to work with. But once the race starts, it becomes apparent who those cars are and who is going to be good. It seems like people are just magically more interested in helping you and being with you when that is the case, so that is our goal.”
