NASCAR: Chase Elliott talks about 2nd place disappointment

Chase Elliott found himself in a familiar position at Phoenix: 2nd place, as he was once again so close to claiming his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory.

Chase Elliott, 21, entered this year’s NASCAR Cup Series playoffs having driven in 67 career races in the series, with 62 of them having come since he got his first full-time ride driving for Hendrick Motorsports at the start of last season.

In those 67 races, Elliott had never won, but he had racked up career-high 2nd place finishes in three races. Two of those 2nd place finishes came last season, and one of them came before the playoffs this season.

Through nine of the 10 races in this year’s playoffs, Elliott has more than doubled that 2nd place finish total, as he has taken it from three in 67 career races to seven in 76 races since he has finished in 2nd in four of the nine playoffs races contested so far — and that total doesn’t even include the Martinsville Round of 8 race, when he was wrecked out of the lead with just over two laps to go by Denny Hamlin before finishing way back in 27th.

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None of the 2nd place finishes that have come before his most recent one, the one he experienced on Sunday at Phoenix in the Can-Am 500, the final race of the Round of 8, can measure up to this one as far as disappointment goes.

Once again, he took the lead late in the race, this time from Matt Kenseth (after retaliating against Denny Hamlin for the wrecked described above). He looked well on his way to his first career Cup Series victory — and thus his first career Championship 4 appearance — with just a handful of laps to go in the race.

But Kenseth was able to hunt him down, pass him and pull away from him before winning his first race of the season, leaving Elliott to finish in 2nd place for the fourth time in the playoffs and seventh time in his Cup Series career, and also leaving him out of the Championship 4.

Here are Elliott’s comments about finishing in 2nd place yet again, with his championship hopes being dashed after this most recent heartbreak.

"“That’s all I had buddy. Sorry, I was trying freaking everything I knew to try. I’ll get it right some day…A lot of close calls. I wish more than anything we were fighting for a championship next week. Our car was really, really fast on those short runs after the rubber got picked up, and we had struggled to be super tight on the long haul and kept taking off really good and was able to kind of work our way forward. I gave everything I had to try to get a big enough gap so that I could try to keep Matt back there, and tried with everything I had, and it wasn’t enough.’’“You just keep coming back. You recognize there’s always going got be another race and there’s always going to be another opportunity. That’s all you have to recognize, there’s going to be another one next week, another season next year and recognize that the past is the past and learn from it and try to move on down the road.’’"

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While he is out of the championship battle and will not be one of the four Championship 4 drivers next Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida, Chase Elliott will still battle for 5th place in the final standings. He currently holds that position by 17 points over none other than Denny Hamlin. Will he be able to hang on?

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