Chase Elliott scored the best road course finish of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career Sunday at Sonoma Raceway.
Elliott came home with a fourth-place performance in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 and had his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet near the front of the field most of the afternoon.
“Yeah, I felt like we made the most of our afternoon at least and the race that we were trying to run,” Elliott said after the race. “We realized there at the beginning that I don’t think we had the pace that the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) and the No. 78 (Martin Truex, Jr.) had, so we elected to try to get stage points in each stage and obviously when you do that, that sets you back for the final one.
“Fortunately, I had a good enough car to drive forward and get back in the top five. Solid afternoon for us and looking forward to the next road race, that was a lot of fun.”
Elliott continues to pursue his first career Cup victory but he has turned in several impressive performances this season like Sunday’s in Sonoma. With another road course race later this summer at Watkins Glen and the summer stretch continuing next week at Chicagoland Speedway, Elliott’s Sonoma run provided a shot of confidence moving forward.
“I made a lot of gains, personally, I think, for me at this track,” Elliott said. “It’s been one of my worst. To come here and have pace on Friday and qualify good on Saturday, and to have pace today, it was just a lot more fun. I appreciate everyone on my NAPA team working hard this weekend.
“We had a fast Chevrolet all three days. And that’s nice to show up and get rhythm. We kind of had to pick our battles today. We elected to get some stage points and that set us back a little for that last stage, but I don’t think we had the pace that the leaders had. So, it was a good finish for me, and we’re looking forward to the next road race.”
