Chase Elliott entered this past Sunday’s AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway riding a 42-race winless streak.
Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion and NASCAR’s most popular driver, got off the schneid at Texas, holding off Brad Keselowski, William Byron and others during multiple overtime restarts. Kyle Petty, speaking in a NASCAR.com video, said that Elliott’s win “should come as no surprise” given his performance in the weeks leading up to the race at Texas, in which he finished fifth at Richmond and third at Martinsville.
“I guess it took a total eclipse of the sun to get the planets lined up so that Chase Elliott could find his way back to victory lane,” Petty said. “Honestly, this should come as no surprise. If we go over the last three or four races. I called him Pooh-bear. Listen, I didn’t know if there’s a crow in the Pooh story or not, and I’m gonna have to eat some crow on this one.
“I called him Pooh, because finally he showed up for a race, and we get to Texas, and through strategy, and I’m telling you, determination — and I have to give him this, I have to give Chase Elliott this. The race for him, I believe, was won through strategy and the late race restart, where he took the lead when the caution came out from Denny Hamlin and forced Denny to have to run a different race.
“At that time, he could have been on either offense or defense. Once he took the lead, he was offense. He was offense. Denny was defense, and Denny backed that baby in the wall on defense. That’s what happens when you have to play a different game than what you plan towards the end of the race.”
Denny Hamlin debates whether Chase Elliott is a championship contender after Texas win
Though it’s been a while since he’s been a factor at the top of the points standings, Denny Hamlin believes that Elliott’s win solidified him as a “championship threat.”
“He didn’t do it on strategy or fuel mileage or anything like that,” Hamlin said. “He made a move. Passed me and the 45 [Tyler Reddick] on a restart, went three-wide bottom, cleared us, took the lead. Now, I took the lead back from him because I thought generally our car was just a little better, but then he got us on a restart and then he held those guys off for the win.
“So, that’s a legitimate race win. And what that does for a driver’s confidence is — I can’t tell you how much it helps. Because now he’s like, ‘OK, this is how aggressive I have to be. This is what I need out of my car for it to be fast.’ You start to understand all those things and next thing you know, these wins start just reeling off. And so, absolutely I would consider them a championship threat.”
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