NASCAR CUP SERIES
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY ROAD COURSE
BANK OF AMERICA ROVAL
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
OCTOBER 7, 2023
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1, met with the media ahead of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. Media Availability Quotes:
THE ROVAL IS UNIQUE. IS THE DRIVING STYLE MORE SIMILAR TO A STREET RACE?
“Aside from Chicago, I haven’t really done any street racing. It’s much different than Chicago. This place, it’s a lot crammed into not a lot of space is how it feels. It’s like you’re racing in a parking lot or something. This is just tight and it’s hard to find a rhythm. It’s definitely unique. But we’ve been coming here for a few years now, so there is a little bit of normalcy in the track and the course. It’s a challenge. With road-racing it’s extremely important to find a rhythm in, and this is a hard place to do that.”
ON ADDING ANOTHER WILD-CARD ROUND NEXT YEAR IN THE PLAYOFFS.
“I think (Denny Hamlin) was pretty spot-on. They don’t ask my opinion, and I don’t really want them to ask my opinion. I can get behind what Denny said about that because it does put you in a tough spot and there’s so much out of your control when you go to those speedway races. You can put the perfect day together and end up crashed or whatever it may be. Watkins Glen to me isn’t as much of a wild-card race, but certainly adding another speedway race… that Talladega round has always been the craziest round and the most unpredictable around. You don’t know what’s going to happen any week, but certainly that is a bigger question mark than others. I don’t necessarily love that personally, but it’s not my decision and we’re all going to have to deal with it when it comes time. It’s kind of just there.”
IS BEING IN THE OWNER CHAMPIONSHIP THE SAME KIND OF PRESSURE FOR YOU AS IF YOU WERE GOING FOR THE DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP?
“I’ve said this multiple times throughout the course of however many weeks we’ve been going at it, I really don’t feel any different. My approach each week has been just like as if I was part of the show from a driver’s standpoint. It’s just really not any different. There’s a lot on the line on the owners’ side to the teams. It’s a really big deal. Thankful that between Josh (Berry), Jordan (Taylor) and Corey (LaJoie) and myself, we were able to get the car in on the owners’ side. Like I said, that’s a meaningful thing. I’ve been just as motivated for that as I would have been if I had made the drivers’ side. We’ve enjoyed the challenge of the first few weeks and hope we can continue to advance through the rounds. It’s a good opportunity, and there’s still a lot of racing left this year. We’d like to continue to improve like we have been and get back up in the mix.”
WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON ADDING STAGE BREAK CAUTIONS BACK FOR THIS RACE, AND IS THERE A WAY TO BALANCE GETTING ENOUGH STAGE POINTS WHILE NOT SACRIFICING TRACK POSITION?
“I wasn’t surprised to see them come back. We saw those races go caution-free. That’s not going to fly. That’s just part of the deal. Whether it’s TV or NASCAR or whatever it may be, we weren’t filling the quota so something’s gotta change and that was the easiest way to kind of fix it. To be honest, I’d rather do the stage cautions than have them throw some random cautions. I think that’s better and it’s a more fair way to go about it. That being said, I think it’s fine. This time of year, getting those stage points is such a crucial thing for those guys in the points that it really makes that decision extremely tough. It can make or break your day, right? If you have a shot to win the event, there’s no way you’re going to be able to take the points… certainly not in the second stage and probably not in the first stage with this car. If you think you have a shot to win and you short those stages and you give up all your stage points then you have a late-race caution or a restart doesn’t go your way and you lose the race and now you’ve got no stage points and you didn’t get the win, you could be in big trouble. It makes for tough decisions. Unless you’re in a must-win situation and for the guys who need points, I don’t see how you can give them up. Last year we saw guys who shorted stages that were up toward the front get some stage points because track position is so crucial and everyone feels like they have to do it. We’ll see. It’s always a big question mark. Fortunately I don’t have to make that call.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE RHYTHM YOU WERE LACKING EARLIER IN THE YEAR HAS BEEN FOUND, AND THAT’S THE REASON YOU’RE RUNNING BETTER?
“I definitely feel like we’ve been better. I think we’ve been working in the right direction, and I’ve been pushing in the right direction, maybe just not quite as much as we need to. But we’ve been putting together some good races and we’ve been executing some good events, which is a good thing. So I definitely feel like we have improved throughout the year. Looking back on it, I don’t think being out and my injury is the reason for that. As I learn more about my season and myself and how things have unfolded, I feel like my struggles and the things I’ve fought through this year I was starting to fight through last year, too. I kind of picked up where I left off last season, and I was going to have those things to work through regardless. Obviously that was another bump in the road that I would have rather not gone through. We’re working through it and trying to stay in the fight. We’ll keep doing that each week and try to make that happen.”
HAVE YOU EVER HAD A MOMENT WHERE YOU FELT COMPELLED TO PUT IT ON YOUR SHOULDERS TO OVERCOME IT?
“There have been a lot of those. I feel like I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the years. Here is a great example. I drove straight into the wall there on a restart. I was so mad. I felt like we had a really good car and a great shot at winning the race. At that point in time, I thought I had thrown it away. I wanted to do all I could do to try and get back up through there and make up for my mistake. Most of the time at this level of racing when you make a mistake, you don’t have an opportunity to make up for it. I was fortunate that day to have enough time to do something about. Most of the time you have to wait seven days, and that’s tough. That’s one of the toughest things about it is that you usually have to wait a week. But you always try to make up for any mistake you’ve made.”
HAVE YOU EVER HAD TO GIVE A TALK AND TELL THEM THAT YOU’LL MAKE SOMETHING UP?
“I’m sure there have been instances where that’s happened. But I feel like the best way to do that is to go and show them… I’m giving you 100 percent and I’m trying to make up for my mistake – to where they know you’re doing your part. That’s the most important thing. If they know I’m out there giving it my all, then to me that’s all you can ask for. That’s all I ask for out of them. We’re all going to mess up. You just try to be accountable for that when it does happen, and I feel our team does that. That’s a part of competing and everybody doing their jobs and making sure that we show up each week reset and ready to go and prepared for the next challenge.”
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