Chase Elliott’s Saturday night at Daytona didn’t end the way his was hoping.
The No. 9 team left the Coke Zero Sugar 400 with a 23rd place finish. A late wreck by Carson Hocevar sent the race into overtime, and Elliott was simply stuck too far back in the pack to make a run during the two-lap shootout to the finish.
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After the race, Elliott expressed disappointment in the finish, as he had been hoping to improve his spot in the points standings heading into the Chase.
“Unfortunately, that went worse than I kind of thought it was going to go. I was hoping to get a couple points here. It would have been nice.”
But while Elliott was unable to move up the standings — he’ll start the postseason in eighth place — he was adamant that what matters going forward in the Chase is not where you start, but how you finish.
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“I think for us, we’ve obviously had a terrible stretch. We’ve had one good run over the course of the last number of months,” Elliott said. “The seeding is irrelevant if you don’t run well.”
Elliott has had just one top-10 finish since late June, but the points reset that comes with the Chase offers the No. 9 team a somewhat fresh start. While they’re still behind in the standings, it only takes a few good races to flip the script in the right direction.
“Whether you’re on the front side of it, in first or second, if you don’t run well, that’s not going to work. Same for us. You’ve got to perform at a high level,” he said. “I think if you perform at a high level your seeding… It can make it more challenging for sure, but performing and executing, running like we need to run, putting ourselves in better positions, that will be rewarded if we can go out and do that. So that’s the goal.”+
The first race of the Chase is set for next weekend at Darlington.
Watch: Preece wins in chaotic Daytona finish for first points-paying victory
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