“I Had Jumped Out of That Bandwagon”: 1999 Cup Champ Dismisses Dale Earnhardt Jr’s Chase Elliott Argument, Snubbing HMS Superstar’s Playoff Chances Big Time

Chase Elliott is drawing thin on the chances of qualifying—a hot topic in the community currently. With multiple factors working against him, the 2020 champion finds himself in a bothersome spot. Whereas, the Hendrick Motorsports legend Dale Earnhardt Jr was one who stood behind Elliott’s ability to turn things around. And just this last week, he did it again.

Earnhardt’s partner at NBC and 1999 Cup champion, Dale Jarrett, on the other hand, has not been convinced about Elliott’s chances after another terrible outing at New Hampshire. He also dissected his performance in Chicago, where he could have put one foot in the Playoffs. Speaking on the popular NASCAR on NBC, the 66-year-old criticized the most popular driver of the last five years.

“The team is not ready”: Dale Jarrett on Elliott’s chances of winning in Chicago

Jarrett has been a colleague of Junior at the NBC broadcast booth for some time now. A fellow race analyst for NASCAR on NBC, he is familiar with Jr’s opinions about Elliott. When asked about his stance on the 2020 Cup champion missing the mark, he takes his listeners back to the historical Chicago Street race, where Elliott had a third-place finish.

“Yeah, I kind of rolled the 30-minute show yesterday. I had said that, you know, Marty and Dale Jr were there. I was up until the previous race, but I saw that… two things that got me. At Chicago, and this isn’t anything against Justin Haley who is a really good road racer and did an outstanding job at Chicago in that street race.”

Nevertheless, Jarrett is, in fact, a fan of Gisbergen, as he calls him Superman as he adds more about the missing element in the #9 team’s approach to Elliott’s situation.

“But you think that if Chase Elliott, who’s needing a win to get into playoffs before the Superman came along in, stole the race from both of them, you’d think that Chase Elliott in, more times than not, would go up there and be able to pass Justin Haley in a must-win situation for him. It could’ve gotten possibly far enough away. He could’ve held on for a win, but he could not do that. This tells me that the team is not ready.”

Earnhardt Junior, on the other hand, has a completely different opinion on the situation. Discussing it with Jeff Burton, he said that it was quite tough but certainly not impossible.

Read More: “I Am Just a Perplexed Person”: Chase Elliott Doesn’t Bite His Tongue Over Hendrick Motorsports Awful Showing at New Hampshire

Why is Jarrett edgy on Chase Elliott’s playoffs?

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Coming to the current scenario, Jarett reviewed another disappointing outing in the days prior to the NHMS race and believed the #9 Camaro is hindering their pursuit of a win.

“What I saw in practice and qualifying at Loudon on Saturday, I just didn’t believe that either. I had jumped out of that bandwagon and I heard Dale Jr say that today… These other drivers that they are racing, trying to jump over if you will, first off the #9 car’s not running well enough.”

Elliott’s poor performances at the practice and qualifying sessions were not something one would expect from him at such a precarious stage of the season. The upcoming race at Pocono Raceway will be crucial for Chase Elliott as he aims to get some momentum to his season. Meanwhile, Elliott seemed to have figured out his problems.

“I don’t dislike Pocono. It just hasn’t been a great track for me and I know we’ve got the win there last year. But we didn’t win it outright you know. Would love to run better and part of the reason why I’m doing the Xfinity race is I want to be better up there at the track,” said Elliott.

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