RELATED: Complete race results | Updated series standings
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — All the positives — the determined late-race comeback, leading the most laps, moving up a rung in the standings — meant little to Chase Elliott in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s matinee at Road America. His own harshest critic, Elliott didn’t hold back in giving his performance a scathing review.
“Absolutely terrible job on my part,” Elliott said after a fourth-place finish in the Road America 180 Fired Up by Johnsonville. “That was the worst race, just beyond way too many mistakes. Just absolutely screwed that up, so terrible day for me. I hate it for my guys. I had such a good car and I let ’em down.”
The clouds that hung over the 4.048-mile road course were missing the silver linings, according to the defending NASCAR XFINITY Series champion, who guided the JR Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet from 11th place over the final four-lap stretch to the checkered flag in the 45-lap event. That span was part of an even bigger rally, from 23rd place after his final pit stop on Lap 30, just two laps after an off-course excursion at Turn 11 that cost him plenty of momentum.
Both comebacks left him with little consolation.
“Top five’s not a win,” Elliott said. “Have to be honest with yourself. I screwed it up.”
The negative side of Elliott’s day didn’t resonate as strongly with crew chief Ernie Cope, who discussed the race at length with the 19-year-old driver in the XFINITY garage.
“He is hard on himself. He expects to win and he doesn’t want to let us down, which he didn’t,” Cope said. “He came back in three laps and went from (11th) to fourth, so I look at that. I mean, we were pinned back there and then passing about seven cars in three laps. I mean, you’re going to have altercations during it.”
The ending was a sharp contrast to how Elliott’s day started. The youngster started on the front row after Coors Light Pole Qualifying was scratched by rain, then jumped out to lead the opening 12 laps. After briefly giving up the top spot on an early exchange of pit stops for fuel strategy, Elliott reassumed the lead, stretching it to more than 12 seconds during the dominant first half.
“It was as good as it looked and by far I feel like the best road race car I’ve ever had,” said Elliott, who led 23 of the 45 laps. “I was beyond pleased with the race car. It wasn’t the race car’s fault, I can tell you that.”
Elliott pitted after putting all four tires into the grass off the 14-turn circuit’s kink, apologizing to his JRM crew over the radio after leaving pit road back in the pack. From there, though, his comeback trail began, only to be stemmed by a six-lap caution period — a seeming eternity on the lengthy course — after multiple breakages and fluid leaks in the pack delayed the final restart.
“They’re going caution after caution after caution, but I still feel like we would’ve had time to get back up there and have a shot at winning as good as the car was,” Cope said. “You just don’t know how they’re going to fall. It was just a bad storm.”
Once the clouds lifted, Cope took solace in the big-picture plusses. With 10 races left in the season, Elliott now sits in second place in the standings, supplanting Ty Dillon, who took 10th Saturday.
Elliott’s top-five result, combined with series leader Chris Buescher‘s ninth-place run, chopped his deficit to just 16 points heading to next weekend’s event at Darlington Raceway.
“Looking at the positives, we gained seven, but it was a day we could’ve gotten 15,” Cope said of the points tally. “But it’s all good. We’re right where we need to be. That puts us back (to) second, we’re only 16 out of it and we’re going to go stomp their asses at Darlington.”
