The 2023 season hasn’t exactly been favorable for Chase Elliott. After missing out on many races this season, the Hendrick Motorsports superstar was granted a waiver, making him eligible for the playoffs. Elliott has been hard at work following his return to NASCAR’s tracks at Sonoma, requiring just one win to get into the championship battle. Making his way up the leaderboards, the HMS #9 driver finished in 5th at Sonoma, 4th at Nashville, and most recently he placed 3rd at NASCAR’s inaugural Chicago circuit.

Missing out on bagging the titles at the three races, Chase Elliott spoke to the media at Chicago’s post-race presser, reflecting on his almost disastrous 48 hours at the street circuit.

Chase Elliott Is Unable to Look Past the Negativity

Saturday’s round 1 of qualifications saw Chase Elliott closely following Shane Van Gisbergen through Turn 7. Staying hard on the Kiwi’s bumper, Elliott misjudged Turn 8’s entry, crashing into the outside wall before being turned sideways. The impact of Elliott’s crash even managed to shift two 10,000 lbs safety barriers.

Damaging the left front of his #9 car, the HMS superstar started the Grant Park 220 event from the 34th spot on the grid. Assisted by NASCAR’s decision to cut out 25 laps from the race, the HMS driver secured a 3rd-place finish. Although Elliott’s jump from starting 34th to finishing 3rd was impressive, a crash at Lap 25 of stage two almost ended race day for the 2020 Cup Series champion.

Responding to a media personnel’s question about what went on in the last 36 hours and how he managed to stay competitive, Chase Elliott said, “I wouldn’t say it’s uncharacteristic for me. I’ve just struggled. Just wasn’t very fast and was trying to just get comfortable finding more pace, and I felt like I was just starting to get a big chunk of what I needed. Then obviously made a mistake and put us in a really big hole and I crashed again today and got super lucky.”

“For me personally, I’ve just appreciated everybody digging in and putting this car together. I hate I put them in that spot to begin with and then crashed again today and got super behind, and obviously we were one of the beneficiaries of the race distance having to be shortened because it was going to be dark.”

“So we went from not being in our window to me crashing that second time and us being on pit road and fixing it to fueling up one more time and getting us enough fuel to get to the end,” added the HMS driver.

Reflecting on how badly he had performed, a heartbroken Elliott further added, “A long weekend, but a decent result considering how bad of a job I feel like I did in the past 48 hours.”

Watch This Story: Heartbroken Chase Elliott Admits Defeat Hours Ahead Of  The Chicago Street Race

Now seemingly losing playoff hopes, Chase Elliott had earlier spoken at Gateway to Bob Pockrass, discussing his injury and penalty-ridden season.

Chase Elliott’s Positive Outlook That He Exhibited After Gateway

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Owing to a snowboarding injury, Chase Elliott missed out on six Cup Series races in the 2023 season. Elliott’s bad luck continued when he was handed a one-race suspension after NASCAR determined that Elliott had intentionally wrecked Denny Hamlin at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Sitting out for seven races, the HMS superstar decided to turn his luck around.

Unable to participate in the Gateway event following his suspension, Elliott watched drivers compete from the sidelines. Having had ample time to rethink his 2023 season strategy, the HMS driver revealed to Bob Pockrass at Sonoma, “All I can do now personally and all we can do now as a team is keep our eyes focused forward and make sure we are doing our part to prepare the best we can for the upcoming races and execute the ones that are here in front of us.”

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Having limited time to secure a win, can Chase Elliott gather his championship-winning form to secure a spot in the playoffs?