Breaking news

NASCAR Cup Dover II

Chase Elliott dejected after Dover loss: "I gave it away"

Chase Elliott was completely crushed by the Monster Mile — and Kyle Busch on Sunday.

Lee Spencer

Edited: Oct 3, 2017, 1:59 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Race winner Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and Erik Jones, Furniture Row Racing Toyota

Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Race winner Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

After leading a race-high 138 laps — including 59 circuits in the final stage — Busch reeled the No. 24 Chevy in and completed the pass coming to the white flag in the Apache Warrior 400.

Elliott, 21, who is still seeking his first Monster Energy Cup Series win after 70-race starts, was devastated after climbing from the car.

“I’m just so disappointed in myself,” Elliott said. “Golly, I couldn’t have had it any easier. It ran green from the stage break all the way to the end. And, I gave it away. I appreciate my team and their efforts today. The pit stops were great and they kept us in the ballgame. I didn’t.

“You look back and maybe you could have done some different — but I didn’t. It’s such a bummer. It’s such a disappointment for my team. I really don’t have a whole lot to add.”

Elliott was handed a gift when Kyle Larson had to drop out of the lead prior to the restart of the final stage to reset his electronic control unit. He inherited the point and led 78 laps before his final pit stop. Once he cycled back to the point on Lap 340, Elliott extended his lead to 4.5-seconds over Busch before hitting lap traffic in the closing laps.

“It was all just lap traffic ahead and I fought it,” Elliott said. “If I had a clean track, I could have run as fast as he did but I didn’t and I should have done something different. So, that’s just on me. He didn’t a better job than I did and at the end of the day, that’s what it comes down to.”

Jimmie Johnson, who finished third, tried to comfort his younger Hendrick Motorsports teammate.

“I know I can’t help the situation, but I thought maybe I could let him get a few cuss words out before he had the cameras and everybody else listening,” Johnson said. “I feel for him. I feel for that No. 24 team, great group of guys and man, they have been so close and I know today stinks.

“But, we are getting our cars going the right way and I know he is going to be a factor in Charlotte.”

Neither speed or advancing to the Round 2 of the playoffs provided sufficient solace for Elliott following his loss.

“I appreciate his friendship and him willing to come over and talk to me,” Elliott said. “It shows the kind of person he is but it doesn’t fix my lack of performance this afternoon.”

Watch Elliott talk about his finish here:

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Stenhouse narrowly escapes playoff elimination: "I feel lucky"

Next article Dover did little to alter the playoff picture

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

FIA partners with AWS to help drive future F1 regulations

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

51 min

FIA partners with AWS to help drive future F1 regulations

Chevrolet's 1st through 6th sweep at Talladega was its first since 2013

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

3 h

Chevrolet's 1st through 6th sweep at Talladega was its first since 2013

NASCAR warned nearly the full field at Talladega for minimum speed violations

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

6 h

NASCAR warned nearly the full field at Talladega for minimum speed violations

Carson Hocevar credits tow truck driver for saving his race at Talladega

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

10 h

Carson Hocevar credits tow truck driver for saving his race at Talladega

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts