Chase Elliott makes his stance crystal clear on his crew chief’s high-stakes ‘only chance’ call in COTA

NASCAR driver Chase Elliott recently reflected on his performance in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at COTA, crediting his crew chief for making the right calls. Despite an early setback that sent him to the back of the pack, Elliott managed to recover and secure a respectable finish in the third race of the Cup Series season.

Elliott started the race in P3 behind pole-sitter Tyler Reddick but faced an early setback when Ross Chastain spun his #9 Chevrolet, sending him to the back of the field on the opening lap. Despite the challenges, crew chief Alan Gustafson made strategic calls that helped Elliott recover. The HMS driver worked his way through the pack, finishing in P4 after spending much of the race with an average track position of 23.37.

After the race, Chase Elliott credited crew chief Alan Gustafson's aggressive strategy, calling it their "only chance" to recover from the Lap 1 setback. When asked how he managed to break into the top five despite the early struggles, he responded (via Frontstretch):

"Yeah, I don't know. I really don't." (0:04)

On being asked how strong the rebound was for him to come from the back, the former Cup Series champion driver said:

"I mean, really only did that once, you know, there at the end. I wouldn't say the other runs were, you know, we might have started in the back. We didn't really go anywhere. But Alan made a great call there to put tires on us and kind of get us on offense. And that was really our only chance to make anything out of it. So it worked out." (0:11)

Chase Elliott began the 2025 Cup Series season on a high note with a victory in the pre-season Clash, but his momentum didn’t carry over to the Daytona 500, where he finished P15 in the #9 Chevrolet. The following weekend in Atlanta, he struggled to break into the front pack, settling for a top-20 finish. However, a top-five finish at COTA is a breath of fresh air for the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

Frustrated Chase Elliott calls out Ross Chastain after COTA incident: “It’s the first lap of the dang race”

Chase Elliott did not even make it past turn one before Trackhouse Racing's #1 driver Ross Chastain clipped him from the back and spun him off, which led to him starting the race from the back of the pack despite being third fastest in qualifying.

Following the end of the race, Elliott expressed his frustration with Chastain in an interview with Regan Smith.

"I hadn't seen it, you know. So I don't want to, I don't want to comment yet, but just, you know, first lap of the dang race, right? But just frustrating to just fall behind there early. We had damage, toe knocked out in the back, and Alan and Matt, everybody did a great job fixing it and getting us in a good position," said Chase Elliott. (0:14)

Meanwhile, the Cup Series will now compete at Phoenix Raceway next Sunday in the Shriners Children 500. Catch the race live at 3:30 PM Eastern time, exclusively available on FOX Sports 1, MRN, and SiriusXM.