Even though he’s only been on the Xfinity Series circuit for a little over a year, it has been rare to see Chase Elliott have a bad day.
Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was one of those rare days for the defending series champion.
Chase Elliott finished fifth, which doesn’t seem all that bad.
Granted, it was a hard-earned fifth, getting past Brendan Gaughan in the closing laps. But to the son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, he might as well have finished 40th, judging from his post-race comments.
“We didn’t deserve to beat anybody,” Elliott told the Performance Racing Network after the race. “We just about wrecked down there and, thankfully, Brendan had a great save and was able to get it straightened back up.
“It’s frustrating. Man, we were absolutely terrible. There’s nothing to be proud of at all today, zero percent things to be happy about. Today was just absolutely terrible.”
Saturday’s result matched his finish last week at Atlanta.
When asked what he and the No. 9 team need to work on going forward, Elliott was blunt.
“Anything and everything,” said Elliott, fifth in the standings, 24 points behind series leader Ty Dillon. “We were battling for 10th there for the latter part of the day. That’s not acceptable.
“We’re going to step up, everybody, especially me, and we’ll try to get it again next week at Phoenix.”
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