Sprint Cup: Mixed Feelings for Chase Elliott Heading into Chase – Making the Chase in your rookie season? How can that not be a confidence boost?
Well, for Chase Elliott, who has been documented as being hard on himself following near-wins this season, simply making the Chase for the Sprint Cup Series championship on try No. 1 isn’t enough to have him smiling.
At face value, 2016 has seen some of Elliott’s best moments behind the wheel of a racecar in his short time in NASCAR. Finishing second during both events at Michigan, he has tallied up a further five top-5 and 11 top-10 finishes, including two poles and 163 laps led.
For Elliott, however, momentum has been a tough find since the season flipped to summer, which has seen only two top 10s in the last 11 races.
Following Saturday’s regular-season finale at Richmond, Elliott had one of his most all-around difficult weekends this year, starting a career-low 34th before cutting a tire and finishing 19th.
Joining Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson in the 16-driver Chase, the 20-year-old, in his short-and-sweet quirk, has his eyes set on reality, knowing the speed side if only half the battle.
“You have to have the mentality that we can make it a long way and hope for the best,” he said. “If we don’t leave here tonight with the mentality of ‘We can make it to Homestead’ then we might as well let the guy behind us in the Chase.”
Perhaps a fairly negative outlook heading into the Chase isn’t as bad as it sounds. After Tony Stewart won the 2011 championship, stating he didn’t even belong in the Chase to begin with, Elliott could turn that confidence around. – Zach Catanzareti
XFINITY Series: One More Chance to Win Before the Chase – After finishing second at Richmond on Friday night, Erik Jones likely voiced the frustrations of several XFINITY Series regulars.
“It’s unfortunate,” Jones said. “We want to win, and I feel like we had a car that could do it, just not against Kyle [Busch] and the 18.”
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I’m not even going there with the Xfinity chase and cup drivers stealing wins in the Xfinity series. I have no desire to beat that dead horse any longer.
Yep, why bother. No one seems to be listening. Just let the low ratings and lack of fans in the stand kill off the series. If I turn on the X-finity race and a cup guy is leading I quickly change the channel and watch something else.