Chase Elliott had a topsy-turvy race weekend at Dover as the Hendrick Motorsports driver started the race from pole, was leading the race at one point, but finished in sixth place. While Elliott had a day to remember, his crew chief, Alan Gustafson, was the one who went under the microscope.
The Challenge Round 4 - AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 started with Elliott on pole. The #9 driver remained in the lead by the end of Stage 1, but lost three places after a jack issue resulted in a 15-second stop, where he lost the lead of the race in Stage 2.
In the end, the HMS driver finished Stage 2 in fourth place. In the final stage, Elliott was running in fourth, but Gustafson (Elliott's Crew chief) asked the driver to stay out, while others had pitted.
Even though it looked like a promising strategy, the advantage of fresher tires from rivals resulted in Elliott losing multiple places. In the end, the #9 driver came home in sixth place, behind race winner Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, and Ty Gibbs.
Chase Elliott let his feelings known during the Dover Cup Series
Chase Elliott shared his thoughts while the race was still in progress. Speaking about his race during the weather delay in the final stage, here's what the #9 driver told TNT Sports:

Following this, he commented on the jack issue he faced during the race:
"You know you’re still early enough in the event at that point that there’s still a lot of time to recover,” Elliott said. “It’s not all sunshine and rainbows all the time, so you just have to deal with whatever comes your way, and we had an issue come our way and I felt like we’ve dealt with it well.”Currently, Chase Elliott is leading the regular season championship with 702 points to his credit after 21 races. Being one of the most consistent drivers, Elliott has a win, seven Top-5s, and 12 Top-10s to his name. He has led 374 total laps and faced no DNFs so far.
Thanks to Byron's wreck, Elliott moved up in the championship and took the lead from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate. Notably, the #9 driver has an average start position of 15.81 and an average finish position of 10.
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Edited by Pratham K Sharma