With Chase Elliott out of the playoff contention, the pressure has finally lifted itself off of the shoulders of the number 9 team and, more importantly, the 27-year-old Georgian himself. This is the first time in his career behind the wheel of Mr. Hendrick’s Chevrolet that he has missed the playoffs. However, he still is a part of the playoffs, and that too for a good reason.

Fans predict that Chase Elliott will get Hendrick Motorsports their 300th win. The Chevy star appeared in contention with Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, and Erik Jones in the mix. After concluding the Hollywood Casino 400 with a P6 finish, Chase Elliott opened his mouth about what he called a “solid day”.

Four tires seemed to be ‘the’ strategy for the HMS icon

Although Brad Keselowski won Stage 2, it did not come easy. As the RFK owner posed a threat to Denny Hamlin in holding the lead spot, the latter regained the top spot with a close call. 77 laps to go; as Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, and Chase Elliott fought for the lead, Tyler Reddick climbed up the second spot. Erik Jones was up to fourth, Chase Elliott fell back to fifth and Kevin Harvick found himself in the 6th.

With 10 laps to go, Denny Hamlin outraced Tyler Reddick by more than 2.5 seconds. Chase Elliott slithered up to the third while Brad Keselowski was in fourth, and Elliott’s teammate Kyle Larson in fifth. However, lining 5th on the overtime restart, Tyler Reddick took full advantage of his four fresh tires and wheeled past Erik Jones and Joey Logano and led two laps of the entire race; the final ones.

According to Chase Elliott, Reddick’s decision to get all his tires changed was the ultimate showstopper. When Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports asked how Elliott’s car felt and if he did achieve what he had wanted to achieve, the Golden Boy of Hendrick Motorsports responded positively.

He said, “Our car, I thought it was really solid. We were in the mix. I thought to have a solid day, pass Brad for third there and that’s probably where we were gonna finish.”

“I’m not sure if we had anything for Denny or Tyler, but I thought we were as close as we’ve been, so that was nice. Appreciate the effort all week,” he added.

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To everyone’s surprise, the two Hendrick Motorsports drivers, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson, had a slight skirmish. While coming out of the pit lane, Kyle Larson tried to avoid Brad Keselowski, who was also exiting the pit stall and swerved to the right. With the swerve, Larson nudged Chase Elliott on the pit road exit.

After the initial contact, Elliott too veered into the right side of Larson’s car. Things did not end there as Chase Elliott walked over to Kyle to confront him. But little did he know that it was for Brad that Kyle had to run into him.

Kyle said to NBC Sports, “The 6 is pitted in front of us, and I was just trying to leave as much space as I can. He’s coming out of the lane, because the 6 is trying to slow us down. I tried to leave as much space as I could. Obviously, I made contact… but I felt like if I didn’t, I was going to clobber the 6 right in the right front.”

He hoped that Chase would watch the replay of the race and understand his compulsion.

When Pockrass asked Chase if there was a message that the latter was trying to send through that counter-nudge, he stated bluntly, “Oh, there was no message.”

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