Elliott Earns Top-10 Finish at Charlotte ROVAL

• Chase Elliott and the No. 9 UniFirst team qualified 15th for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at the Charlotte ROVAL.
• Elliott finished stage one in eighth and stage two in third.
• In the final stage, the 29-year-old driver’s No. 9 UniFirst Chevrolet continued to show pace with Elliott ultimately finishing the race in eighth.
• Elliott had already clinched his spot in the Round of 8 with his win at Kansas Speedway the previous week.
• He enters the Round of 8 tied for sixth in the standings, 14 points below the cutline.

Chase Elliott and the No. 9 team entered the Charlotte ROVAL race weekend already locked into the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs with their win at Kansas Speedway. Elliott qualified the No. 9 UniFirst Chevrolet 15th for Sunday’s elimination race and methodically worked his way forward in the first stage. He reached 12th before pitting under green for four tires and fuel on lap 11. Elliott returned to the track in 28th and climbed back to 11th by lap 21. He finished the first stage in eighth, as some cars had pitted prior to pit road closing.

During the stage break, Elliott brought the No. 9 UniFirst Chevrolet to pit road for four fresh tires and fuel. With teams on varying pit strategies, the 2020 Cup Series champion lined up just inside the top 20 for the start of the second stage on lap 30. Elliott worked his way up to 12th before crew chief Alan Gustafson called him in for four tires and fuel on lap 38. After returning to the track, he moved back inside the top 20 by lap 40. He continued to gain positions, and in the closing laps, teams on a different strategy began making green-flag pit stops. Elliott remained on track and finished the second stage in third.

The 29-year-old driver visited pit road under the stage-ending caution for fuel and a fresh set of tires. A fast stop made Elliott the second car off pit road, but with several cars staying out, he lined up 21st to start the final stage on lap 56. He was up to 18th when a caution came out on lap 58 and was 16th to choose his lane for the restart, opting for the inside. Elliott moved inside the top 15 before green-flag pit stops began on lap 67. The Dawsonville, Georgia, native stayed out until pitting from the second position on lap 75, setting the team up to need only one more stop. Elliott returned to the top 10 on lap 83 and was running seventh when he made his final pit stop of the race on lap 93. He drove from 15th up to eighth to finish the race.

“I do,” Elliott said when asked if the he and the No. 9 team kept up the intensity and sense of urgency despite being locked into the next round of the playoffs. “We were trying to do something different on the strategy front. Unfortunately, never really went our way. I thought our pace was actually respectable. To restart, you know, in the mid-20s there behind 20th place on a couple of occasions and get back inside the top 10, I feel like we were decent. Just needed to have something kind of go our way with the way we were running it, but yeah, overall I thought it was a solid day for us and certainly gave it our best effort. Excited to get to Vegas.”

Elliott heads to the opening race of the Round of 8 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway tied for sixth, just 14 points below the cutline.

Start / Finish: 15 / 8
Points Standing / Total: 6th / -14 below cutline

Next Race: Sunday, October 12, Las Vegas Motor Speedway
How to Watch or Listen: 5:30 p.m. ET on USA, SiriusXM or PRN

NAPA: @NAPARacing
Chase Elliott: @ChaseElliott
Hendrick Motorsports: @TeamHendrick
No. 9 Team: @Hendrick9Team