Elliott Finishes Fourth at Iowa Speedway and Increases Points Lead
Newton, Iowa. (May 18, 2014) – Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet, finished 4th in Sunday’s Get to Know Newton 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Iowa Speedway. It was his fifth top five in 10 races, and he now has a slim two-point lead over Elliott Sadler and Regan Smith. Sam Hornish Jr. led a race-high 167 laps and captured his third career Nationwide Series win and first this year.
Starting sixth after a busy weekend that included flying to his high school graduation in Georgia, Elliott piloted his NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevy inside the top five, where he contended most the afternoon. The only time Elliott dropped out was under caution on lap 143 when a dropped lug nut on the right-front tire during a pit stop forced the No. 9 Chevy to restart 11th, but Elliott promptly drove it back toward the front.
The final restart came with 22 laps to go with Elliott in fourth. He took third from Michael McDowell and was on the bumper of Ryan Blaney for second. He wasn’t able to clear Blaney, and soon teammate Regan Smith passed Elliott for third, making it a 3-4 finish for JR Motorsports’ two championship contenders.
Blaney, who started on the pole, would finish second behind Hornish at Iowa Speedway. Sadler would finish fifth behind Smith and Elliott.
Driver Quotes | Chase Elliott
“It was a lot of catch up for our NAPA AUTO PARTS team today in Iowa. I felt like our car was not very good on the short run. We were super tight, and I really struggled on the restarts. We would just fall in line. We were basically playing defense there. Once we got some laps on the tires we were OK. I felt like our car was definitely better, we just needed to take off a little better. There were a few issues on pit road that we need to address and hopefully we can have those fixed before next week.”
2014 NATIONWIDE SERIES DRIVER POINTS
1. Chase Elliott……………………………………. 379
2. Elliott Sadler……………………………………… -2
3. Regan Smith……………………………………… -2
4. Ty Dillon………………………………………….. -35
5. Trevor Bayne…………………………………… -36
6. Brian Scott………………………………………. -64
7. Brendan Gaughan……………………………. -9
8. James Buescher…………………………….. -110
9. Chris Buescher……………………………….. -119
10. Landon Cassill………………………………. -121
NAPA AUTO PARTS:@theNAPAnetwork
CHASE ELLIOTT:@ChaseElliott
JR Motorsports:@JRMotorsports