At some point at the end of this Cook Out 400 at Martinsville, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott got into one another, but it was no big deal. After racing hard, the two NASCAR champions almost had a small incident on the track.
Ryan Blaney was able to rally around in this race to finish P5. He struggled a bit at Martinsville. Meanwhile, Chase Elliott finished P3 in a Hendrick Motorsports 1-2-3 behind teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson.
Blaney is the defending champion and has been off to a strong start this season. This is his fourth top-5 finish of the season and first since Phoenix.
The Team Penske driver made sure to talk to his buddy at Hendrick. Chase Elliott and Blaney are on good terms with each other, it was just one of those things that happen.
“Oh yeah we just kind of run into each other down there,” Blaney told Matt Weaver of Sportsnaut. “He kind of like got out of shape, checked quick and I didn’t expect him to check and got into him. I [inaudible] to spin him out honestly. So lucky we were able to both keep going.”
A strong run for both Elliott and Blaney. Martinsville is a track where both drivers perform well. In the Next Gen era, there has been no one as good at The Paperclip as the No. 12 car. All of these top-5s are building towards a win eventually for Blaney.
As for Chase Elliott, this is perhaps his next step toward a win. He has not won since the end of the 2022 season.
Chase Elliott with back-to-back top-5 finishes
The season did not start how the No. 9 team hoped it would. He rallied off three finishes in the top-15. At Phoenix, he finished a season-low of P19. Bristol was his first top-10 finish of the season and since then he has started to slowly improve.
Short tracks are what Chase Elliott excels at. He is at his best on these tracks and that has shown the last two weeks. Elliott was P5 at Richmond and this week P3. Texas, Talladega, Dover, and Kansas are all tracks Elliott could win at in the coming weeks.
Really, there isn’t a track Elliott isn’t good at on a week-to-week basis. It feels like these Hendrick cars could win any race. William Byron has speed. Kyle Larson has speed. Alex Bowman and Elliott have started to show speed as well in recent weeks.
When Chase Elliott does get to victory lane, I think he could go on a run. With how well his teammates have raced this season they are bound to fight over more wins in the future. Rick Hendrick has four of the most talented drivers in the Cup Series on his roster. Not to mention great crew chiefs as well.
Rudy Fugle deserves as much credit as Byron for today’s win. The two have worked out well together every time they have been paired up. They could be on their way to a Cup Series championship this season.
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