RELATED: Full results from Bristol
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Coming off a career-best Sprint Cup Series finish of fifth at Texas last weekend, Chase Elliott has outdone himself, earning a fourth-place finish in Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The 20-year-old qualified 19th for the short track event, Elliott’s second-lowest qualifying spot since the start of his rookie season. But that was only motivation for the young rookie to battle his way up through the field.
“We started off real slow,” Elliott said post-race. “We didn’t qualify as well as we’d like to on Friday but I thought we hit on a couple things yesterday in final practice that, fortunately, we carried over to today and were able to kind of run our way up through there.”
Elliott ran as high as second during Sunday’s race, but he didn’t get there without a few bumps at “The Last Great Colosseum.”
The Hendrick Motorsports driver experienced a loose wheel early in the 500-lap event, causing him to come down pit road while the green flag was out. But thanks to his No. 24 pit crew, Elliott didn’t fall too far behind.
“Hate to have a loose wheel,” Elliott said. “But the guys did a good job overcoming that with a fast pit stop under green, only losing two laps, so that was big to keep us in contention there and try to get back on the lead lap. So, definitely a long afternoon, but that was the biggest thing that kept us alive.”
Despite Elliott’s strong finish at Bristol, as well as four other top-10 finishes this season, he’s got fellow Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Ryan Blaney to battle with week after week. The No. 21 driver also has been running in the top 10 consistently, with an average finish of 19.2 through eight races (Elliott’s average finish is 15.8).
Even though Blaney also had a strong showing at Bristol, running in the top five and top 10 and ultimately finishing 11th, the Wood Brothers Racing driver felt his Ford deserved better.
“It was good until the end,” Blaney said. “We should have run fifth, easy. … We had a good race car and got stuck on the bottom for three straight restarts and went backward. That’s pretty disappointing when you know you have a top-five race car.”
For Blaney, the Food City 500 was not the 22-year-old’s first go-around at Bristol in the Sprint Cup Series. Blaney made a start in the No. 21 Ford in 2015 for Bristol’s fall night race, finishing 22nd.
This was Elliott’s first Cup Series start at Bristol, a track his NASCAR Hall of Famer father Bill Elliott earned his first short-track victory at in 1988. The younger Elliott’s only other short track experience in the Cup Series was his run at Richmond in 2015, where he finished 16th.