The NASCAR Cup Series 2023 iteration has been a dramatic one for Chase Elliott and HMS fans so far. For the team, only two of its top drivers made it past the regular season. This did not include the 2020 Cup Series champion, Chase Elliott, and his teammate Alex Bowman. While an unfortunate accident took Elliott further from his championship hopes, bad luck also did the driver dirty, struggling to win a race as the drought continues to take its toll on NASCAR’s golden boy. For the first time in his eight seasons in the organization’s top-tier division, Elliott missed the playoffs, drowning his ardent fans in deep sorrow.

Amidst all this, misfortune also ran its course on him before his last stand to make the 16 ran off its course in Indianapolis, and Elliott was stabbed in the back in Michigan by an unlikely partner. While Elliott’s traitor garnered more and more criticism from experts and former drivers, it also got a handful of praise from some. NBC analyst Kyle Petty was one such person who lauded NASCAR’s 70-year-long partner and the villain of Elliot’s story after an eventful race at the Talladega Superspeedway.

Kyle Petty compliments the traitor mere months after they got Chase Elliott out

Racing has always been a game of inches and seconds. Just like we saw in the past race in Talladega, However, things might not always add up to a picture-perfect finish. In fact, they do so very rarely. On the flip side, things can go wrong at any given moment and can have massive turnarounds.

The speedway action at the Michigan International Speedway is a perfect example of this. HMS’s struggling superstar Chase Elliott was chasing for a win in the dark. Before his hopes to rack up a win at the Indianapolis road course went bleak, the driver’s bad luck started its course at MIS a week prior. Looking to claim valuable points, the #9 driver set out for an adventure at the 2-mile speedway. However, fate had different plans. With ten laps to end the first stage, one of the tires on the car from NASCAR’s long-standing tire partner, Goodyear, burst, and it sent Elliott careening into a nearby wall.

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Busting the right rear tire coming into the turn, the #9 HMS Chevy lost its way and hit the wall, ending his speedway run in misery. The following weeks only exposed the tire manufacturer’s flaw as NASCAR Nation saw it firsthand. However, after the race in Talladega last Sunday, Kyle Petty had a different take on it.

He even complimented Goodyear as he drew a comparison from the old days, mentioning how the race had fewer stops like the old times. He said, “It a lot of little things if we go back to let’s go way back in time and way back machine to the late 60s, 70s, and the early 80s, man you could run all day long on a set of Goodyear tires at Daytona & Talladega you’d never change.”

“Gas and go was the norm, to see that come back I think that’s a tribute to Goodyear too that they have designed a tire they get so much criticism for some things they do, they should get pat on the back for other things they do”, 

“I’m disappointed…” Rick Hendrick gets real about Elliott’s bitter 2023 season

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Obviously, everyone was pretty disappointed and frustrated to see a top driver not even make the playoffs. While misfortune took away six races from Elliott, putting HMS in a precarious position, the driver’s inability and his team’s poor strategy also took the #9 further back. Before his Talladega run, his boss, Rick Hendrick, got honest about his driver’s dull season, calling a spade a spade.

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“I am disappointed in his season, for sure,” he said. Being the current generation’s best road racer, he continued to mention Elliott’s potential. “I think Chase is an unbelievable talent, the most popular driver, under a lot of pressure from the fans, not as much from the sponsors — they want to win. I feel like he deserves to win races, he’s got the talent. So we’ve just got to get him in that position,” the HMS boss said, according to the Associated Press.

“I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed for him. I’m disappointed for his sponsors,” said the 74-year-old, painfully reflecting on his driver’s fate.