BRISTOL, Tenn. — Chase Elliott secured a front-row starting spot for Saturday night’s Monster Energy Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, just behind Busch Pole winner Kyle Larson and just ahead of third-fastest Kyle Busch.
Even though he outpaced Busch by a slim margin of .003 seconds Friday, Elliott says the challenge of beating him in the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race (6:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM) remains a daunting one. Busch, a six-time winner this season, will be trying for his third straight Bristol victory and the eighth Cup win of his career at the .533-mile track in Saturday night’s main event.
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Elliott has his own recent momentum with four consecutive top-10 runs, but he says a high level of precision will be necessary to subdue Busch at Bristol.
“To beat him here, you’ve got to be perfect, because he’s perfect here,” Elliott said after clocking a 127.665-mph lap in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet. “You’ve got to be perfect, have some things go your way and at the end of the day, you’ve got to make it happen because that’s what he does to win. He does a great job working lap traffic and changing lanes, moving around. So, be perfect or you’re not going to beat him.”
Friday marked Elliott’s best qualifying effort since he won the pole position at Daytona International Speedway in July. Though he’ll have one of the best views on the starting grid for Saturday’s 500-lapper, Elliott lamented what might have been in terms of the pecking order for pit selection.
“Not near as nice as it would’ve been to be starting first and have that first pit stall,” Elliott said. “That’s nowadays with the close timing lines, this is one of the few places I feel like having that first pit box is a massive advantage like it is here for 500 laps. Wish we could’ve got it, but we didn’t, so we’ll go get it from second.”