Chase Elliott finished fifth in Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and was surprised by the performance.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver qualified 10th and stayed near the front of the field in Sunday’s 20th race of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. But he was still taken aback by his top-five finish and Stage 2 win.
“I was shocked, to be honest with you, that we ran even that good,” Elliott said. “Our whole NAPA group did a great job overnight. I really have no idea where that came from. I hope it wasn’t dumb luck. Hopefully we can keep it rolling because it’s really nice to be able to go up there and lead some laps. I know it wasn’t the right part of the race, but still, leading laps for us is big compared to what we’ve been doing.
”I’m proud of the effort. I appreciate everybody’s effort back at Hendrick and the chassis shop and engine shop and Chevrolet and all the folks that are working hard to try to get better. We took a step in the right direction.”
While he is still looking for career Cup win number one, Elliott is on track to make the playoffs through the point system. His finish Sunday was a big help in that effort.
“Yeah, it was a huge points day for us,” he said.
“Obviously, we’d love that win to not have to worry about it. But, we got 19 points between the two Stages, that’s 19 positions on-track, and that’s a lot. Anything can happen in these next few weeks and to have all you can get is really important.”
