RELATED: Updated series standings | Full race results
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Track position was king, cautions were few and when it all shook out, Chase Elliott departed Phoenix International Raceway six points closer to Chris Buescher.
Elliott, who clinched the 2014 NASCAR XFINITY Series title here at the 1-mile track a year ago, finished seventh in Saturday’s DAV 200 Honoring America’s Veterans. Buescher finished 13th, leaving the deficit between the two at 18 points.
With only one race remaining, next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, 18 points is a lot. But it’s not impossible, Elliott said.
“Certainly we still have a chance,” Elliott noted. “18 points really isn’t that much. That’s one little mistake from being right back in it.”
Mistakes were few and far between in the series’ penultimate event, there were only three cautions for 18 laps, and that had a big impact on the outcome, according to Elliott and crew chief Ernie Cope.
In a race that was dominated by Sprint Cup Series driver Kyle Busch, Elliott said his team “gained on it all day.”
“Definitely made it better on the long run,” he said, “Other guys did, too.
“Track position was important as always; this race had green flag written all over it so it was hard to gain a big chunk of ground unless you could get it on pit road somehow. The guys had a really good pit stop that last one, and got us a couple of spots. It just took me too long to gain them on the race track.”
Elliott had qualified 12th earlier, and while not terrible, it didn’t help according to Cope.
“We just needed track position,” Cope said. “We didn’t qualify good; we had a little trouble getting out of the box and lost some positions on the first stop. He passed cars but it just took so long, the next one (in line) would be so far out. We had a top-five car we just never could get the track position.”
Buescher described his day as an “OK” one, but “not a good one.” It was his worst finish since Iowa, 13 races ago, and only the fifth result of 10th or worse during that stretch.
The gains made by others were slight — Ty Dillon and Regan Smith, third and fourth in points, finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
Buescher needs only to finish 13th or higher at Homestead to clinch the title, regardless of how others fare.
“We’ve just got to go race,” Cope said of the season-ending event. “The 60 (of Buescher) got to have (a problem). We can’t make up 18 points or whatever we are behind … Even if we win he’s going to run good enough to where we can’t beat him unless he has an issue.
“We’re just going to go try and do our best, that’s all we can do. You can’t force bad luck, you don’t want to wish them bad luck, you just want to go run the best you can, try to win the race. Wherever it falls, it falls.”
Elliott hasn’t led the points at any time this season, but he’s been third or higher since the year’s fifth race. He’s won only once, at Richmond.
“The way I look at this year is it’s definitely had its ups and downs and we’ve given it our best effort and I think that’s all you can ask for,” Elliott said. “There have been a lot of mistakes made by me that I wish I could go back and fix.
“Like I said … just one small mistake can gain you a chunk of points just like that. Hopefully we’re not the one; hopefully we don’t make any mistakes so we can give ourselves a chance. That’s all you can ask for.”
