Late Wreck at Talladega Nationwide Race Hurts Chase Elliott
Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet, finished 19th in Saturday’s Aaron’s 312 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. Race winner Elliott Sadler notched his 10th Nationwide Series win and climbed to second in the driver points standings. He is now one point behind leader Elliott.
Starting 37th, Elliott charged to the front and contended inside the top-10 for most of the afternoon. On lap 88 JR Motorsports cars claimed the top three running positions, as Kasey Kahne, Regan Smith and Elliott had dodged earlier wrecks and were in prime position to settle it amongst teammates.
With all JR Motorsports cars still in contention, Elliott made his bid for the lead with nine laps to go. A simultaneous caution flew at the time Elliott was passing leader David Starr, and NASCAR awarded the top spot to Elliott. A slow restart sent Elliott back to fifth, and as leaders Ryan Blaney and Elliott Sadler traded the top spot, they made contact and triggered a chain-reaction wreck. Blaney’s car pounded the turn-three wall and came back across the track and slammed into the right side of Elliott’s NAPA Chevrolet. Elliott saved the car from spinning out, but the NAPA team would have to tend to the damage under caution. Elliott would restart toward the back of the lead-lap pack and finished a three-lap shootout to the finish in 19th place.
Sadler held off several charges to win the race. Chris Buescher, Regan Smith, David Ragan and Sam Hornish rounded out the top-five. The 19th-place finish for Elliott snaps his top-10 streak at seven.
Driver Quotes | Chase Elliott
“Our team fought hard all day long, but just couldn’t stay out of the late wreck, costing us a shot at the win. It was hard to swallow, because I thought if I got a good enough restart and helped push my teammates (Kasey Kahne and Regan Smith) we could take the NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevy back to victory lane. That type of stuff happens in this sport and even more so at a place like Talladega. We’ll go back to the drawing board after the off-weekend and prepare for Iowa.”
2014 NATIONWIDE SERIES DRIVER POINTS
1. Chase Elliott………………………………… 339
2. Elliott Sadler……………………………………. -1
3. Regan Smith…………………………………… -3
4. Trevor Bayne………………………………… -31
5. Ty Dillon……………………………………….. -31
6. Brian Scott……………………………………. -62
7. Brendan Gaughan…………………………. -89
8. James Buescher……………………………. -95
9. Chris Buescher…………………………… -110
10. Ryan Reed………………………………… -114
NAPA AUTO PARTS:@theNAPAnetwork
CHASE ELLIOTT:@ChaseElliott
JR Motorsports:@JRMotorsports