Posted November 3, 2014 by Elliot Mabe Featured

Consistency is Common Denominator for Chase Elliott at Texas

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet, finished fourth in Saturday afternoon’s Texas 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. It was Elliott’s 15^th top five of the season, extending his championship lead to 48 points over JR Motorsports teammate, Regan Smith. Kyle Busch’s earned his 70^th career Nationwide Series win, after he led a race high 116 of 200 laps.

Starting 11^th, Elliott gracefully maintained position inside the top-10 during the first run. Early reports on the NAPA Chevy were similar to those from practice on Friday, the NAPA Chevy being a little snug in the middle. As Elliott fell outside of the top-10 on lap 35, he reported that he was losing overall grip. As the caution flag fell on lap 49, crew chief Greg Ives brought Elliott to pit road. The NAPA team executed a near-flawless pit stop, something they did all afternoon, and kept Elliott in the mix.

As the race neared the halfway mark of 100 laps, Elliott radioed that his NAPA Chevy was losing its nose, meaning he was having issues controlling the front end of his racecar. Luckily for Elliott, a caution flag came out on lap 96, allowing him to come to pit road for fresh tires and another chassis adjustment. It was yet again another perfect stop by the NAPA team.

The final restart came on lap 137, where Elliott found himself in the seventh position. As the final laps wound to a close, Elliott gradually gained on the leaders. In the midst of the longest green-flag run of the day, the NAPA team made one final pit stop on lap 180. Once the green-flag stops cycled through, Elliott found himself taking the checkered flag in the fourth position.

Busch, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Elliott, and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top five.

Driver Quotes | Chase Elliott

“We really struggled to start the day. We were running decent, but not great at the beginning. For us to go from that side of the spectrum, to running inside the top five at the end of the day, I really can’t thank my NAPA AUTO PARTS team enough for not giving up on me. My crew chief Greg Ives called an exceptional race, our pit stops were flawless all day. It was, in my opinion, our best performance of the year. This was a complete race for us, and one that we would like to replicate two more times this season. I’m looking forward to Phoenix next weekend.”