Chase Elliott Pit Road Interview Road America

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In: NASCAR Cup Series News

Q. Chase Elliott led 36 laps for most of the race but in that final stage Tyler Reddick got up there and got past you. What more did you need to hold him off or even get back at him?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, just do a better job. First off, congrats to him. I know he’s been super close to that first win, and I’ve been down that road and it can be a rocky one. I’m happy for those guys. They deserve it.

For us just proud of our NAPA team. I didn’t do a very good job there. I just let him stay close enough to pressure me there while we had decent tires and never could get enough of a gap. Made a couple mistakes. I was gaining a gap there a couple times and made a couple mistakes and let him get back close enough to get me out of sync, and then after that just started struggling.

Obviously it was super difficult to get to somebody to pass them. It was impressive he was able to get up there and capitalize on my mistakes. Happy for those guys. Appreciate the effort out of our team. Wish I could have done a better job there. I felt like we probably needed a little bit, but I think we were good enough to win, so those always hurt.

Q. You and I are sitting down right here, it’s a hot day. We saw you pushing. We saw you going deep into every braking zone. How tough is it to try and make a pass and why was it so impressive the pass he made on you when you weren’t able to get back by him?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, these cars are very aero sensitive and even more so nowadays, even more than last year’s car. And as the season goes on and everybody’s car has become more of the same as we learn what everybody needs in their vehicles, every car is going to become the same manufacturer to manufacturer, and as that becomes the case, track position is going to become more and more of a premium. That’s just motorsports nowadays. Aero is huge, and you can’t unlearn, so that’s the road we’re on.

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