Elliott Secures Playoff Berth, Finishes Tenth at Richmond
Chase Elliott finished 10th Saturday night in the regular-season finale at Richmond Raceway and clinched his spot in the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Elliott started ninth in Saturday night’s 400-lap regular-season finale and used that position to score two additional points in Stage 1 by finishing ninth.
The No. 24 Mountain Dew team slipped just outside the top 10 in Stage 2, finishing 12th, after Elliott reported he may have charged too hard and overused his tires in the early laps of what ended up being a lengthy green-flag run throughout the 100-lap stage.
Elliott pressed toward the top 10 and found himself in 11th with 100 laps to go at the .75-mile oval. He cracked the top 10 again just before making a scheduled green-flag pit stop. Once the full field cycled through their pit stops, the No. 24 was scored 17th with less than 40 laps remaining.
The second-year driver continued to push forward as the laps wound down and Elliott eventually found 12th before a caution flag at Lap 397 sent the race into overtime. In the final two-lap dash to the checkered flag, Elliott was able to advance into the top 10 and ultimately crossed the line 10th to secure his spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for the second consecutive year.
Start / Finish: 9th / 10th
Points Earned: 29
Points Standing: 10th / 2006
Next Race: September 17, Tales of the Turtles 400, Charlotte Motor Speedway
How to Watch or Listen: 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90
NAPA: @NAPARacing
Chase Elliott: @ChaseElliott
Hendrick Motorsports: @TeamHendrick
No. 24 Team: @Hendrick24Team
Hendrick Motorsports View All
Founded by Rick Hendrick in 1984, Hendrick Motorsports is the winningest team in NASCAR Cup Series history. At the sport’s premier level, the organization holds the all-time records in every major statistical category, including championships (14), points-paying race victories (312) and laps led (more than 82,000). It has earned at least one race win in a record 40 different seasons, including an active streak of 39 in a row (1986-2024). Headquartered in Concord, North Carolina, the team fields four full-time entries in the NASCAR Cup Series, including the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet driven by 2020 champion Chase Elliott.