WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Chase Elliott had little to say after winning his first NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Championship on Sunday afternoon at Watkins Glen International.
The two-time track winner was muscled out of the lead in Turn 1 by Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson on the final restart with five laps to go. On the inside lane heading into the 90-degree right-hander, Larson dove deep alongside Elliott and slid into Elliott’s door, pushing the No. 9 Chevrolet wide as Larson scurried to his second win of 2022.
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The contact shipped Elliott as far back as fifth place before he rallied to a fourth-place finish.
After the event, Elliott spoke with team owner Rick Hendrick and vice chairman Jeff Gordon on pit road and appeared frustrated. In the media center, Elliott didn’t care much to express that displeasure.
“Just offer congratulations and get excited for next week,” Elliott said.
Larson, returning to Victory Lane for the first time since winning at Auto Club Speedway in February, was often burned by being in the right lane throughout the weekend, including in Saturday’s Xfinity race. That usually left him in the rear-view mirror by the time he got to Turn 2.
With five laps to go, Larson made a decision.
“I figured it was probably going to be the last restart of the weekend,” Larson said. “And I told myself if I had a nose ahead of him before we got to the braking zone, I was gonna have to try my best to maintain that and not let him get a nose ahead of me and pinch my corner off and end my chance of winning.
“So I had a good restart and got in there hot and did what I had to do to win. I’m not necessarily proud of it, especially with a teammate, but I feel like I had to execute that way to get the win.”
Larson, who went on a 10-race, championship-winning tear in 2021, contemplated the potentially frayed feelings that could stem from late-race rough driving. He accepted that risk in Turn 1, knowing Elliott likely won’t cut him a break any time soon.
“You have to weigh all that stuff out as you’re rolling under caution and that’s kind of all stuff that’s crossed my mind,” Larson said. “I don’t know. I think – and I hope it’ll be fine – but we’ll see. I didn’t end his day today, but I did probably take a win from him.
“So yeah, I don’t know. I think we’ve raced well in the past and in the next 11 weeks, but 10 weeks in the playoffs, there’s more than just me to worry about. But yeah, I know there definitely may be moments throughout the playoffs where – I feel like we’re around each other a lot because we’re pretty equal on track and stuff. So yeah, there may be moments, but in my position, you kind of have to accept it.”
Both of Larson’s wins this season have come at Elliott’s expense. At Auto Club, Larson slid high into Elliott on the frontstretch in a three-wide battle for the lead gone awry, plummeting Elliott to 26th. Contact Sunday wasn’t nearly as detrimental as Elliott still scored a top-five finish, but the history certainly persists.
“I feel like we’ve been in a good spot. We were able to talk after the incident at Auto Club and moved on past that pretty quickly,” Larson said. “… At Auto Club, it was more of an accident. Today it was hard racing at the end on a restart. So I’m sure it’ll warrant some conversation, but I don’t know.”
Elliott wasn’t concerned about the public’s perception of tying the two incidents together.
“It doesn’t matter. The day’s done,” Elliott said. “Just thinking about (Daytona) and learning what I need to do to be good there. There’s nothing I can do about today now. So doesn’t matter, does it? And I’ll answer that for you. It does not. It doesn’t matter.”
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Jeff Andrews, president and general manager of Hendrick Motorsports, understood Elliott’s post-race demeanor but noted Larson’s move was nothing egregious.
“Tough, tough race track from a restart standpoint and Turn 1 is known for that kind of contact and shaking things up there at the end,” Andrews said. “And certainly hate that for Chase and Alan (Gustafson, No. 9 crew chief) and that team as hard as they worked all day and the car they had all day.
“At the same time, you know there was no intent by Kyle, certainly to have that happen. That’s the last thing we want to have happen. So as a team, we’ll work on that internally. But today and short-term here, we’re going to focus on the great race cars that were here today.”
The regular season ends with a highly-anticipated finale at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday (NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
