Chase Elliott started second at Martinsville on Sunday in the final race of the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. The Hendrick Motorsports driver needed a win to advance to the Championship 4 in Phoenix. He finished second.
While an overall good day, the No. 9 team did have its share of frustrating moments. The most volatile and notable happened early in the third stage.
However, it all started around the halfway mark of the stage before when the HMS pit crew had a right rear issue and terrible stop that lasted more than 20 seconds. The car, which had won the first stage, plummeted back to 26th. To the 2020 champion’s credit, he navigated up to 12th by the end of that stage.
The pressure naturally ratcheted up in that last stage with so much riding on the line and so many drivers, Elliott included, all driving with the same aggressive win-and-you’re-in mentality.
On Lap 304 and running 10th, the No. 9 battled Chase Briscoe on his outside for ninth when the two cars rapidly approached a slowing Chris Buescher on the inside lane. Unfortunately for Elliott, he didn’t realize how much slower and struck a glancing blow on the rear of the No. 17 car.
“Hahaha. Um… pitting?” Buescher replied to Elliott’s question, asking what he was doing.
“All good,” Elliott’s spotter Trey Poole said over the team radio.
“No, not (expletive) all good!” the driver angrily responded. “What is he doing?”
“Don’t worry about it. Focus forward here,” his spotter replied.
While the 28-year-old driver was unclear and upset by the RFK Racing driver’s move, NBC analyst Steve Letarte noted on the broadcast how it appeared Buescher was doing nothing more than getting down to the bottom of the track for a stop on pit road.