“I Don’t Think We’re Gonna Make It” – Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain & Joey Logano Had to Fight a Different Battle During Phoenix Race

As was the case last year, this season’s championship race between Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Ross Chastain, and Christopher Bell was decided majorly on factors outside of on-track racing action. In 2021, it was a pit stop that made the difference.

And in 2022, it was perhaps fuel saving.

Interestingly enough, NASCAR gave access through their Radioactive videos to the inner workings that went on between drivers and their crew with regard to saving the fuel.

“Need you to continue to save me a little fuel,” Ross Chastain’s crew chief said at one point in the race, followed by Alan Gustafson, the crew chief of Chase Elliott adding, “I don’t think we’re gonna make it (on fuel). Let’s go ahead and start running hard here.”

Logano too asked his crew, “How short (on fuel) am I? Tell me,” to which his crew chief told him, “We were one to two (laps short) when we started.”

Soon enough, Elliott was asked to come to the pit road by his crew chief, a point duly noted by Chastain’s spotter as he told his driver, “#9 is on pit road.”

“That save you’ve been doing, we have to have it the rest of the way. Even if the #19 passes us,” Logano’s spotter added.

“Guys are saving in front of you. Every spot we can get,” Gustafson told Elliott as the #9 driver replied, “Yeah, copy. It’s actually driving really good.”

“Awesome, go get’em bud,” the Hendrick Motorsports crew chief added.

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Chase Elliott slammed by NASCAR insider for his ignorant behavior

In a recent episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Griffin opened up on Chase Elliott’s general lack of expressiveness in front of the mic which was perfectly on display in the Phoenix desert.

For some context, the #9 driver got spun around by Ross Chastain at one point during the race, but when confronted about it after the race, he simply ignored the question.

“Man, the thing I’m most spot off for about this whole thing is Chase Elliott in these media sessions. He is our most popular driver, he is, who what I would say, 80% of our fanbase at least likes, if they don’t love him,” he said.

“When you walk in the media center sessions where he is the hot topic, he flat out won’t talk.”

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