"This was a phenomenal race": NASCAR Insider sees major positives for Chase Elliott at Dover despite 6th place finish

NASCAR Insider Jordan Bianchi commented on Chase Elliott finishing sixth at Dover. The Hendrick Motorsports started the race on Sunday from pole position. However, despite being in the mix for the top spot in a race tainted by a rain break, Elliott ended up with a top 10 finish.

On the Teardown podcast, Bianchi shared his thoughts on the Dover weekend for Elliott. It's worth mentioning that Elliott's race result was also massively affected by a strategy call by his crew chief Alan Gustafson.

Yet despite the sixth place result, Bianchi believed the race was a massive success for the #9 driver.

"I think this was a phenomenal race for Chase Elliott. The result is going to say sixth, but this was to me and I understand they won at Atlanta. This was a great performance and I think their best performance of the year. They were consistently fast throughout the entire race. They won a stage today, by the way, which is the first time they've done that all year." "They did the things today that we have talked about them not doing, leading a bunch of laps, winning a stage, putting themselves in position. This wasn't a team that was just grinding out another top 10. This was a team that was in the mix and was a team to beat today," Bianchi said. [18:10]

Bianchi mentioned that the #9 team is finally beginning to 'come into form' a little bit. He also pointed to Chase Elliott having the best average finish of all drivers so far this season.

So far this season, Elliott hasn't finished outside the top 20 even once. Apart from his win at Atlanta, he has had six finishes inside the top five.

Jordan Bianchi didn't like Alan Gustafson's tire call for Chase Elliott at Dover

After Jordan Bianchi commented on the implications of the Dover result of Chase Elliott, he shared his remarks on the strategy call by Alan Gustafson which he didn't like. Bianchi claimed the crew chief is 'a pinata' for Chase Elliott fans whenever the team ends up with a less than ideal result.

But for the podcast's co-host, tire wear wasn't a 'huge factor' in the race.

"I didn't like the call. It didn't seem like tire wear today was a huge factor. Yeah, the tires gave away after a certain time and you saw a little bit of corroding everywhere, but we saw drivers in older tires be able to do things and I didn't like that call then. I like the idea of staying out being aggressive and holding your line," he described. [19:00]

Bianchi added that the #9 team had a fast car, pointing to the aspect of having clean air being more important at Dover than any other track on the calendar. He claimed that it would have been better for Elliott to stay out and remain aggressive.

Get the latest NASCAR All-Star race news, Xfinity Series updates, breaking news, rumors, and today’s top stories with the latest news on NASCAR.

Edited by Tushar Bahl