While William Byron took away the winner’s trophy home from Watkins Glen, a piece of wrong information paid a heavy toll on his HMS teammate. Chase Elliott lost an array of priceless positions due to a miscalculated pit strategy. Hence, the Golden Boy of Hendrick Motorsports fell short of bagging the win, yet again on a road course.
After all, there is just one seasonal race left till the round of 16s and that is at Daytona. Everybody knows that is a wildcard; anything can happen. Therefore, the race at the Glen was his last chance for salvation. And sadly, he failed. Elliott’s natural reaction to his crew’s callousness can be anticipated easily. However, another Hendrick Motorsports personality did not hold back from lashing out at his team’s flawed crew.
HMS insider slams NASCAR team’s lacking pit crew
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The #9 Chevy sensation had qualified 15th for Sunday’s race. While sitting in the 13th spot, he made his first pit halt. Fans cheered as he scurried along the pack, gaining pace. He had gained 6 positions before the ultimate mishap took place with a sudden halt on lap 55 around turn 2.
Chase realized that his Chevrolet Camaro was out of fuel. His voice on the radio while he conveyed this information to his spotter clearly resonated with disappointment. Spotter for the number 9 car, Eddie D’Hondt said, “Just come to us whenever you can, It’s f*****g wrong information.”
Chase realized that he was not going to make it to the pit road and decided to stop. Moments after the infield workers arrived, Eddie seemed to get impatient as they were not hustling enough, considering the gravity of the situation. He exclaimed, “Tell him to push it in. Can they not push it in?”
Chase said on the radio, “I told them. There’s no push truck back there yet.”
Eddie pointed out at a push truck that seemed to drive past Chase and take an unnecessary U-turn to only come back to Chase. This was too much for Eddie. Being utterly frustrated, he cried, “What are they doing?”
Chase was still optimistic about making it to the end of the race with even one lap down. So he wanted to know the position of the leader. When Chase asked if they had a chance, Eddie snapped back, saying, “Yeah, if they push the damn thing!”
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Jeff Gordon called it “unfortunate”, while fans called it “inexcusable”
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What started off to be a good day for Chase Elliott ended miserably for the defending Cup champion. After his 32-place finish, he has dropped down to 21 and is now 103 points below the cut line. Needless to say, he has to win the season finale at Daytona in order to make it to the playoffs this year. Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon said during the post-race interview, “Clearly a miscalculation with the 9 car and that was huge.??
?He came in a little bit short the first stop (at Lap 17) and so they were trying to stretch it to get closer on the strategy of the others. And you always want to pad yourself here just in case there?s a lot of restarts at the end, and the fuel just wasn?t there. So it was really unfortunate,? he added.
As NBC Sports tweeted, “It’s looking like he MUST WIN at Daytona to make the playoffs”, fans did not miss any chance to condemn the people responsible for the fall of their hero.
CHASE ELLIOTT RUNS OUT OF FUEL!
It's looking like he MUST WIN at Daytona to make the playoffs. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/73VuaqK2pN
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 20, 2023
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Someone commented, “Inexcusable”, while another one said, “WTF running out of Gas !”
Some of the fans called out HMS crew chief Alan Gustafson and said, “Alan needs to go! He’s terrible this year, and it seems like there’s no good communication between him and chase! This year has been done for awhile.”
Someone joked and said, “Next race, Nascar will have to manipulate the cautions to get their golden boy in. Poor Chase Elliott ?”
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If Chase Elliott misses the playoffs this year, it will be the first time for him since 2006. Last year, he was the NASCAR Cup Series Champion, and this year NASCAR chucked him off 6 races due to an injury and a penalty. With just one race left till the playoffs kick-start, the chance of Chase running his car there is getting fainter every day.
Read More: ?I Have Told You Guys a Thousand Times? ? Chase Elliott Gets Agitated as Reporters Repeat a Question