Fourth Place Finish Equals Big Points Day for Elliott

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet, finished fourth in Saturday’s Gardner Denver 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Road America.  It was his seventh top five in 14 races.  He is now trailing points leader Regan Smith by 11, and one point back from Elliott Sadler for second.  Brendan Gaughan led eight laps en route to his first career Nationwide victory.

Starting 12^th, after a lengthy weather delay, Elliott quickly navigated his NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevy towards the front, passing two cars and rounding out the top-10 after the conclusion of lap one.

Elliott found himself in the seventh position on lap 25 as the rainfall started to pick up significantly.  Fill-in crew chief Ernie Cope brought Elliott to pit road for the mandatory NASCAR tire change.  The change in tires and track conditions played into Elliott’s favor as he whistled his way around the soggy track and back inside the top five with 20 laps to go.

The final restart came in dramatic fashion as Elliott sat on the outside of Gaughan for the green-white-checkered finish.  Elliott took the lead away as they entered turn one, but unable to hold the lead as the Richard Childress Racing driver stole it back entering turn 12.  Elliott took the white flag in the second position, but couldn’t hang on as the final lap came to a close with Kevin O’Connell and Alex Taglioni, both passing Elliott.  Elliott finished fourth and was followed by JJ Yeley, who rounded out the top five.

Driver Quotes | Chase Elliott

“It was a tough way to finish a race.  We dodged a couple of bullets today, but all-in-all I was proud of my NAPA AUTO PARTS team for overcoming adversity all weekend long.  We certainly didn’t start off the way we would have like to and the rain put us in a tough position as well.  So looking at it from that point of view, a fourth place finish is one we’ll take for sure and move on to Kentucky next week.”

2014 NATIONWIDE SERIES DRIVER POINTS

1. Regan Smith…………………………………… 516
2. Elliott Sadler……………………………………. -10
3. Chase Elliott……………………………………. -11
4. Ty Dillon………………………………………….. -41
5. Brian Scott………………………………………. -58
6. Trevor Bayne…………………………………… -63
7. Brendan Gaughan………………………….. -106
8. Chris Buescher……………………………….. -128
9. James Buescher…………………………….. -128
10. Landon Cassill………………………………. -148

NAPA AUTO PARTS:@theNAPAnetwork
CHASE ELLIOTT:@ChaseElliott
JR Motorsports:@JRMotorsports