Goodyear Betrayed Chase Elliott Mere Days After He Defended Them by Slamming Other Drivers for Hurting Sales

The miseries perpetuated for another week for Chase Elliott. The 2020 Cup Series champion had exhibited considerable development and was steadily inching towards the playoff by parking his car within the top 10 in Michigan. This would have reinforced his eligibility for the post-season races. However, all the dreams came shattering down for the Hendrick Motorsports’ star driver.

The Firekeepers Casino 400 on the track of Michigan International Raceway was an utter blight and catastrophe for the winningest team of NASCAR. However, to make a case for the HMS drivers, especially Chase Elliott, are they the only ones to be blamed for the tragic weekend that ensued on the track, or is someone else to be blamed for?

Chase Elliott’s faith in Goodyear backfires after the Michigan incident

There is no denying the fact that had the No.9 Chevrolet driver not been sidelined for six weeks due to a broken tibia, Elliott would have deftly earned a victory and glided into the playoffs. Nevertheless, the driver had demonstrated enough prowess as a Cup Series driver after his comeback as he clinched positions within the top 10 week in and week out. However, it was just a victory that the driver is elusive of and could confirm his position in the post-season.

Elliott did have a short of earning his first victory of the season on the track of Michigan, after starting the race from 10th. However, the hopes seemed to crash at Turn 1. The golden boy of NASCAR was steadily making his way to the top of the field, but as poor luck could have it, the car rammed into the outside wall and put an end to a favorable day.

The culprit was the right rear tire failure that lead the driver to lose control of his car on lap 35 and eventually crash into the wall. The incident led Elliott to be relegated to the 36th position on the leaderboard. During the incident, the sportscaster was heard saying, “Chase Elliott loses it.” While his spotter on the team radio asked, “Ooh! Hang On. You all right?”

To this, Elliott expressed, “Yeah, I think so. Popped a tire.” The crew chief of No.9 also expressed, “Yeah, copy. Right rear.” 

A dejected Elliott stated to the media after exiting the car, “Really early in the day to have a tire blow like that; it was really weird. Bummer, but not surprised. Obviously, we stayed out, but I don’t even feel like I was being hard on it.”

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Chase Elliott’s allegiance to the tire manufacturer turns out to be a nightmare

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The incident of tire failure of Elliott’s car comes days after the HMS driver had slammed his fellow drivers after they had censured the tire manufacturing giant Goodyear. Elliott, who had been a part of Goodyears tire tests, was taken aback by the fact that NASCAR is trying to make advancements by experimenting with various tire compounds.

He expressed, “I thought we made a lot of gains on the tire during that test and it opened my eyes to how much we can make things with just the tire compound by itself and that really surprised me. For a long time, and I still feel like Goodyear is in a tough place, because they feel like if tires fail, then it could hurt their sales on Monday.”

“But (they) have to make a tire that is a little closer to the edge than they’ve (given us) in the past. That puts some responsibility on the teams to live within those guidelines, the livable zone of the tires, and that has to fall to the teams.” This was not the first time that Elliott had shown his allegiance to Goodyear, and this was evident in the last season as well.

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With this being said, it is to be seen how the driver strategies the next three remaining races of the regular season. Will Elliott make his way into the Playoffs or will the hopes will fall into the dust crumbling down?