Rebound Finish for Elliott and NAPA at Home

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet, finished fifth in Saturday’s Hisense 250 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.  It was Elliott’s first top-five effort of the season and brings him within 28 points of Chris Buescher in the driver points standings.  JR Motorsports driver Kevin Harvick led a race-high 101 laps en route to his 45th XFINITY Series victory and first of the 2015 season.

After qualifying in the ninth position, Elliott maintained a steady pace inside the top-10 early in the going.  While running in third position, crew chief Ernie Cope brought Elliott in for a scheduled pit stop under green-flag conditions, changing four tires and making a chassis adjustment.  Once up to speed, Elliott reported the NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet fired off better and he began a surge forward.

For much of the race’s second half, the 19-year-old Dawsonville, Ga. native battled inside the top-five.  Elliott could match the leaders lap times late in the race, but it was track position that came at a premium.  The final pit stop for the NAPA team was on lap 131 with Elliott scored in third.  With another solid pit stop from the No. 9 team, Elliott restarted third with 24 laps to go.  Unfortunately, he was shuffled out of the inside line and dropped to eighth.  After the shuffle, Elliott maneuvered his way through traffic for a hard-fought fifth-place finish.  

Harvick bested Joey Logano, Ty Dillon, Chris Buescher and Elliott to score JRM’s first XFINITY Series victory of the season.

Chase Elliott, driver No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS team

“Overall I feel like there was a lot of positives about today.  The pit stops were really good.  The changes on the car that Ernie and the NAPA AUTO PARTS team made really had a difference throughout the day.  We went too far and then we came back and I feel like those were positives to know that Ernie (Ernie Cope, crew chief) was making good changes time and time again on the NAPA Chevrolet.  I just didn’t fulfill my part there at the end.  We just have to put ourselves in position to give Kevin (Harvick) a run.  (The 88) team would have been tough to beat, but we’ll try again next week at Vegas.”

JR Motorsports PR