NASCAR Analyst Goes Against Fans to Blame Chase Elliott for Heartbreak at Watkins Glen, Claiming Crew Is Not Guilty

For 27-year-old Chase Elliott, the 2023 NASCAR season has been a nightmare. The former Cup Series champion is yet to win a race this year and his fading hopes of qualifying for the playoffs are hanging by a thread. The gone-by race weekend at Watkins Glen only added to his misery as his car ran out of fuel mid race and he finished at a lowly 32nd position.

While the result, in part, can be blamed on Chase’s subpar qualifying performance that had him start the race at the 15th spot, a misfired strategy from the crew too was responsible for the disappointing outcome. But for Nate Ryan, motorsports writer at NBC.

The guilt scale tipped more toward the weight of Chase Elliott than toward his crew. Discussing the race on his podcast NASCAR on NBC with former racer Dale Jarrett, the analyst revealed his opinions on what went wrong for the #9 Hendricks Motorsports team.

A well-devised strategy propelled to failure by Chase Elliott?

In what wasn’t a normal decision, Chase Elliott’s crew chief Alan Gustafson had him pit early in Lap 17 of Sunday’s race. By pitting more prematurely than others, Elliott gained a clear track that let him stress his engines to the maximum.

The idea was to help him gain time on competitors who would be pitting along with other cars and not have a clear track as he did. Unfortunately, the strategy backfired. Chase was 13th before pitting but came out 6th when the cycle ended.

The final pit stop was to come at lap 55 for Chase, but before he could get there, he ran out of fuel and ended up stopping about a mile away from his pit stall. Whether the exact reason for this was a potential fuel miscalculation or an issue with the fuel line is yet to be known, but Nate Ryan, while admitting that the crew was complicit in the failure, pushed more of the blame toward the side of Chase Elliott.

Watch Story: Chase Elliott Calls Out Hendrick Motorsports Revealing What Lost Him the Race

‘They were in this position because Chase Elliott”: Nate blames the driver

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Talking about the strategy that Gustafson had drafted out, Nate said that the idea had worked. Chase did end up coming out in front of other drivers. But the move had put them on a very tight margin in which they could have nothing go wrong. Had things turned out different and Chase had ended up making it to the 2nd pitstop, Gustafson would’ve been the center of attention today.

But that wasn’t the case and Nate had a problem with everyone blaming Gustafson for it. He said, “I don’t think it can be overlooked that the reason they were in this position was because Chase Elliott qualified 15th and you know to your point like when Byron and Larson are making the final round and you’re the guy qualifying 15th.”

He also mentioned that Chase Elliott had himself owned up to the mistake by saying that he had put together a horrifying qualifying lap. Nate went on to later acknowledge that Chase running out of gas had ended his chances but the troubles started the day before the race, owing to lack of execution from the team and the driver.

30 races have gone by since Chase visited victory lane. In what has otherwise been a terrible season, the former champion has one last shot at redemption next weekend at Daytona.

Read More: “Toughest Season of His Career” – Stone Cold Chase Elliott Could Surprise With a Display of Emotions After Daytona