Chase Elliott’s final shot at winning on a road course before the end of the regular season came to a disastrous end at Watkins Glen on Sunday. Despite making gains in the early part of the race, a gross miscalculation saw him run out of fuel with 36 laps to go.
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A clip emerged documenting the conversations between Elliott and his #9 team. As the audio progressed Elliott’s near-silent disappointed reaction toward his crew chief, Alan Gustafson, could be heard.
Chase Elliott reacts to his crew chief after running out of fuel
Elliott mentioned, “I just hit it (fuel switch), I just hit it.” Right after Gustafson stated, “Copy, you’ll pass me twice now.” Later on, while on the start-finish line, Gustafson mentioned, “You gotta pit this time, this time…”
Subsequently, Elliott said that he was “sputtering.” Soon after Bubba Wallace passed Elliott and the #9 car could be heard losing power. When Gustafson realized what was truly happening he stated, “F*cking bad information.” Elliott responded, “I am on two (turn). I am out of gas.”
His crew chief replied, “I know, just come to us whenever you can, it’s f*cking wrong information.” After driving with fuel for a while, Elliott mentioned, “I am not going to make it, so I guess I will just stop here.”
Soon after he was given a push by a pickup truck and taken all the way to the pits for a refuel. But by then the damage had already been done. After getting back out on track, Elliott realized that winning was now impossible. Hence, he asked his team about their owner’s point situation.
After a long period of silence, the team responded, “Uhh, we are like 50 in front of the #23. He’s second right now. We just gotta race the best we can. Don’t worry about anything.”
Elliott’s final shot at the playoffs is now at Daytona this weekend
After managing to conclude a rather horrible weekend in the 32nd position, Elliott’s last chance remains at Daytona. Winning at Daytona would now be his only option since he definitely cannot make it on points alone anymore.
If anything, one could argue that the playoff chances for the #9 car are already over. Even Elliott himself mentioned that heading to Daytona with a must-win situation was like heading to Las Vegas and “having to hit the nearest slot machine for the jackpot.” He mentioned that it would be silly to assume a win there would be that easy.
Just looking at his statistics at Daytona, Elliott has never won on the track. Most of his success at the race track is clenching pole positions. Therefore, heading into the upcoming weekend, it would take a miracle and bucket of luck to have him win the final race of the regular season.
