Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet, finished 37th in Saturday’s Winn-Dixie 300 at Talladega Superspeedway. A cut right-front tire was the culprit in the uncharacteristic finish for Elliott, which sent the team behind the wall for repairs on lap 38. After extensive repairs Elliott returned to the track, but lacked the time to make major headway on his position. The finish drops Elliott to third in the championship points standings, 37 markers behind leader Ty Dillon.
Up until the team’s misfortune Elliott was a clear-cut contender, driving to second place by lap eight. When the field settled into single-file racing, Elliott positioned himself solidly among the top five. It was during green-flag pit stops on lap 36 when the race took an ill-fated turn for the NAPA AUTO PARTS team. As Elliott approached the pits for a left-side tire stop and attempted to slow down for pit road speed, the right-front tire briefly locked up. Elliott came to the attention of the crew moments later, and executing the two-tire stop, they sent the No. 9 back onto the track, but unfortunately with a flat-spotted right front. Once back up to speed, Elliott briefly inherited the lead before the right-front tire gave out and sent him up the track and into the outside retaining wall, pancaking the right side of the No. 9 machine. Elliott limped the car back to the garage area where the crew made the necessary repairs to get the No. 9 back onto the track. The team salvaged a 37th-place finish on the day.
Joey Logano won the race, earning his third XFINITY victory of 2015. He was followed to the line by Brian Scott, Austin Dillon, JJ Yeley and Joey Gase.
Chase Elliott, driver No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS team
“Our plan was to take left-side tires on that stop, just flat spotted the right front coming onto pit road. A few laps later, (the tire) went. I hate it. We tried to salvage what points we could. The restrictor-plate tracks haven’t been kind to us this year. This one definitely hurts, but I have a lot of confidence in our NAPA AUTO PARTS team. We’ll just have to turn our focus toward Iowa and look to make some points back there.”
JR Motorsports PR
