There’s no denying that Watkins Glen was a disaster for Hendrick Motorsports and Chase Elliott in particular. After having started from the 15th position, there was already a massive roadblock for Elliott to bridge the gap for a much-needed win. But just as things began falling into place, disaster struck and Elliott was left without fuel, stranded in the middle of the track.
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Recently, Chad Knaus, the legendary Hall of Famer crew chief, spoke about this fuel conundrum from the Glen that the #9 driver suffered and shared his thoughts on what went wrong at such a crucial race.
HMS insider comments on Chase Elliott running out of fuel at Watkins Glen
Speaking with Sirius XM NASCAR Radio, Chad Knaus stated, “Yeah, we know, we know exactly what happened. And it’s unfortunate and you know, it’s awful to have that happen. Timing in life is everything, right? And it’s unfortunate that happened at that time. To that team, that’s a great race team and they’re trying to get their footing.”
⛽️️ So what exactly occurred to have @chaseelliott run out of fuel last Sunday @WGI?@chadknaus says “we know exactly what happened.”
🗣️ “There were some issues that we’ve uncovered and we think we’ve handled them internally and we’re able to move on.”@TeamHendrick | #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/JLfB6yistB
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) August 24, 2023
Furthermore, he spoke about how well the #9 team raced at the Indy road course, but could not win over Michael McDowell, due to traffic and a lack of caution. Knaus mentioned that had they won the race at Indy, “we wouldn’t even be in a situation we’re talking about this today.”
“But those things happen. That as you are always trying to get everything, you can out of the race cars, you know, it gets really difficult to sometimes make those calls and, you know, there were some issues that we’ve we’ve uncovered, and we think we’ve handled those internally and we’re able to move on.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. thinks Elliott’s fuel disaster was a mistake
Ever since the Watkins Glen incident happened, there have been swathes of speculation surrounding the entire debacle. However, recently the former Hendrick Motorsports driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. argued that it was nothing but a mistake from an aggressive strategy by crew chief Alan Gustafson that caused Elliott to run out of fuel.
While speaking on his podcast regarding Gustafon, he mentioned, “The top five didn’t change order, hardly much at all, in the last 30 laps of the race. Nobody was driving through the field, nobody... So they had to do something, and he tried something unique and I tip my cap to him because it was pretty aggressive.”
Junior, while he mentioned he admired the unique strategy from Alan Gustafson, claimed that it was “a mistake” from Hendrick Motorsports and the #9 team which caused Elliott to run out of gas in the midst of a crucial race.
