LONG POND, Pa. -- Chase Elliott is headed to a backup car after hitting the wall with about 20 minutes remaining in the opening practice at Pocono Raceway.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver hit the wall off Turn 1 about 30 minutes after Kyle Larson had slammed the Turn 2 wall.
“Made a mistake and crashed,” Elliott told NBCSN’s Kelli Stavast. “I put myself in a pretty poor situation there for practice. I apologize to my guys here and the people back at the shop. That’s what you get when you make dumb decisions ... You shouldn’t make decisions like that to put yourself in a bad spot.
“Really my fault. We’ll try to get this other car going as soon as we can and try not to crash again.”
It’s the second consecutive week that practice has been rather eventful in NASCAR’s premier series. Five drivers needed backup cars after prerace wrecks at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last weekend.
Daniel Suarez turned the fastest lap (172.516 mph) Saturday in the opening session at Pocono, followed by William Byron, Aric Almirola, Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer.