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FORT WORTH, Texas — Chase Elliott‘s fifth-place finish in Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway gives the popular rookie his best career Sprint Cup Series finish at a track he is already fond of. It’s the place he won his first XFINITY Series race en route to the 2014 XFINITY series championship.
He was running second place in the late laps of Saturday’s rain-delayed 500-miler before his crew chief called him in to pit for fresher tires on the final caution period. He returned to the track in eighth place and raced through the competition in the final 34 laps to reclaim a top-five showing and cap a career night.
But even as he stood alongside his No. 24 NAPA Chevrolet later on pit road, the fan favorite 20-year-old was as reflective on what he could have done better as he was celebratory of what he did so right.
“Biggest thing is just having fast race cars and when your car is fast, it goes a long way,” Elliott said. ”It was a step in the right direction. We’re definitely not satisfied running fifth. I feel like we have a group of guys that are capable of doing that. We’ll keep digging at it. We have a long way to go with a lot of racing to go in the season.
“We’ll keep working to get where we can roll with those guys.”
Elliott’s finish was more dramatic considering he started in the back of the field after his Hendrick Motorsports team changed the transmission in his Chevy following a fourth-place qualifying effort.
“That’s unfortunate to have to go to the back after having a good qualifying effort but I think having a good pit selection was a big help throughout the night,” Elliott said. “But the biggest thing was just having a good car. I was really happy with it, especially on the long run, and we made some gains throughout the night to try to help our short-run speed. I thought we did that.”
Elliott smiled and said he also supported his crew chief Alan Gustafson’s call for the four tires late and did not question the veteran’s decision despite the risky move.
“Being on offense is good,” Elliott said. “With Alan’s decisions, I’m going to be all for it whether they go good or bad. Whatever he says, I’m in for and we’ll make the most of it.
“Those crew chiefs are put in a position they’ve got to make a call in a hurry, and they definitely have my respect because I respect them for what they do because that’s a tough, tough spot to be in. But as I’ve said, we’re a team. I’m going to support his decision, right, wrong or indifferent, so I was happy we did it, and we tried to make the most of it.”
Undoubtedly Elliott’s car was fast, though. He was in 10th place by lap 120 of the 334-lap race and fifth place by lap 220 before stepping in and mixing it up with the race’s front-runners. Kyle Busch won the race, but all three of Elliott’s Hendrick teammates finished among the top eight, including race runner-up Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson — who nipped Elliott for fourth place on the final lap — and eighth-place Kasey Kahne.
“It was great to see Chase up there,” said Earnhardt, who fielded Elliott’s XFINITY Series championship ride. “I got to race with him a little bit and his car was doing some great things and he was driving a really good line.”
While Elliott is his own worst critic, his progress this year is substantial and noteworthy. He’s had three top-10 finishes in the last four races and he has four top-10s on the season — only six drivers in the series have more. And Elliott is the top rookie in the points standings in 14th place.
“I’m far from getting the hang of it all,” Elliott said. “I’ve got a long ways to go and we had a good run tonight but that doesn’t mean next week is going to go good.
“You have to work hard and get ready for the next one.”
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