CONCORD, N.C. – Chase Elliott had a matter-of-fact outlook on his heartbreaking near-miss in Sunday night’s 61st annual Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“It is what it is,” Elliott told reporters in the immediate aftermath of NASCAR’s longest race.
Elliott was just more than two laps away from taking his first crown jewel victory in the NASCAR Cup Series – driving away from Brad Keselowski in the waning moments – when his teammate William Byron spun with a flat tire to bring out the last of nine cautions, setting up a game-changing overtime restart.
Stuck in a situation that Keselowski later called “damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson made the call to stay on the attack and come down pit road for fresh tires.
The problem with that move? Eight lead lap cars, led by Keselowski, stayed out as Elliott peeled off.
That ensured that the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE would be mired in traffic for the two-lap sprint to the finish, taking him out of contention in a race where track position and clean air were king all night long.
Elliott fought like a man possessed when the green flag waved for the final time, clawing his way all the way back to finish third. However, he ran out of time as Keselowski – who Elliott had passed for the race lead on lap 363 of 400 – took the checkered flag to win the race and deny the Dawsonville, Ga., native.
Initially crossing the line third, Elliott was scored second in the final results after teammate Jimmie Johnson’s car failed post-race technical inspection and was stripped of its runner-up status.
In his television interview, Elliott was quick to lift the blame from Gustafson and from the decision to come down pit road, which he felt wasn’t the true deciding factor.
“It’s just trying to make the best decision you can, and those guys were always going to do the opposite of whatever we did,” Elliott noted. “That’s just part of it, and you make decisions and live with them. It wasn’t the pit call (that was the issue). I think being on offense is fine … and those guys are going to do whatever the opposite of what you do is, no matter what. That’s just part of it in that situation.
“That was the box we were put in. Alan made the decision, we stuck with it, and it didn’t work out.”
Sunday night marked the second time in five days that Elliott came oh-so-close to a victory in the NASCAR Cup Series, but had the race end in heartbreak.
He was running second late in the going at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway on Wednesday night before a misjudgment on the part of Kyle Busch ended with Elliott being hooked into the inside wall and relegated to 39th with a crashed race car. Rain came moments after Elliott’s crash to end that race.
In regards to the emotions he was feeling, Elliott admitted that Sunday night differed from his Darlington misfortune.
“It’s a little different, for sure,” he said. “We were a lap and a half away from winning the Coca-Cola 600. This week has been pretty unfortunate. We’ve had some tough losses in my career, for however many years I’ve been doing this … five or six years, now, unfortunately. Those things happen.
“I’ve watched a lot of races unfold that way. It’s just unfortunate to be on that end of it,” he added.
As for his plans for the future, though, Elliott isn’t taking much time to dwell on what might have been.
“You just try again. That’s all you can do,” he said. “I mean, there is really no other option. I can’t rewind time. There’s no other choice.”
Elliott will get his next shot at victory when the NASCAR Cup Series field returns to Charlotte on Wednesday night for the running of the Alsco Uniforms 500.