“Ifs and Buts Don’t Matter”: Was Chase Elliott Tempted to Crash Into Teammates for Historic NASCAR Win for HMS?

Hendrick Motorsports celebrated its 40th year anniversary in Martinsville in some style. William Byron, Kyle Larson, and Chase Elliott combined to score a 1-2-3 finish in the Cup Series race on Sunday and etched a remarkable memory. Talking to the press in the aftermath, Elliott was asked about his approach for the final restart and his temptation to try winning at the potential cost of wrecking a teammate.

The 3rd placed driver responded that he did strive to win but wasn’t worried that he might crash into Byron or Larson. He said, “ I don’t know about the rest of them but I wasn’t worried about that. Gave him a shot there, tried to win the race and it didn’t work out. But one of us won it. The ‘Ifs’ and ‘Buts’ don’t really matter at this point. William was able to get it done and we got a nice 1-2-3 for HMS.”

Elliott spent the major part of the race inside the top five and restarted alongside Byron as the race went into overtime. He initially tried getting past his teammate with a couple of moves, but when they failed, he resorted to focusing on securing a 1–2-3 finish for the team. “So, at that point, I figured what was second or third? Who cares at that point? You try to go for the win or not,” he told NASCAR.

Confidence brews in Elliott’s camp following optimistic Martinsville result

End of the day, the result is Elliott’s best in the ongoing season and presents another optimistic step in his journey back to the victory lane. The last time he won was at Talladega in October 2022. Even if things did not end up the way that Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson envisioned it, they got to be a brick in what was a very valuable day for Hendrick Motorsports.

“The pace has been good. I’ve been pleased with that,” Gustafson said. “The speed’s been in the cars. I feel like earlier in the year, we just weren’t getting the finishes indicative of the performance of the cars. Our average run position and our finish position was quite a bit different. Recently, I think we’ve certainly gotten better at finishing where I feel like we should. It’s never-ending, just keep trying to improve.”

Elliott’s next race will be at the Texas Motor Speedway. With every passing week, the elusive victory draws closer for the #9 team. Will the Old West be where the misfortunes finally end? Elliott holds that answer.