“I don’t think I was as fast” - Chase Elliott reacts to Kyle Larson’s third win of the season

In his relatively short career so far, Chase Elliott has 7 wins on road courses. This puts him on the third place on the most wins on road courses list, behind only Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon. But the one track where he hasn't won a race yet is Sonoma, a track his teammate Kyle Larson recently won at.

Speaking after his 4th place finish at Sonoma recently, Chase Elliott conceded that the #9 car simply didn't have enough to challenge Kyle Larson.

Elliott claimed he got too far behind while not having enough pace compared to his teammate.

"I think it was a little better. Obviously, would've loved a shot but I got too far behind anyway. I don't think I was as fast as he was. Thought we had a really solid car and in the mix for sure. But just lost too much time. You're not going to make up that much ground when you fall that far behind," Elliott said.

While the #5 driver took the checkered flag on Sunday, his third of the season, Elliott scored a top 5 finish.

Elliott's top 5 finish at Sonoma was his fifth of the season along with two inside the top 10, and one win at Texas.

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Chase Elliott simply wants to get to the level he believes the #9 team is capable of achieving

Heading into the 2024 season following the previous season, the worst in his Cup career, Chase Elliott addressed the idea about him rebounding. The #9 driver notably went winless in the previous year.

But the idea of rebounding wasn't something that interested Elliott. Instead, he had a different perspective on the subject.

"It's not about rebounding or whatever. It's just getting to the level that we feel we're capable of achieving. And that's really all that matters to me. We just want to do the job that we feel like we're capable of doing and try to get to that point and do it consistently. That's all we're looking for," Elliott said as per FOX Sports.

Chase Elliott started off his 2024 season with 4 finishes inside the top 20, followed by a finish inside the top 10, then a finish inside the top 20 again, followed by back-to-back finishes inside the top 5.

And it was after that, at Texas, that Chase Elliott ended his long winless drought. Since then, he has three more top 5 finishes and a top 10 finish, but no wins.

Yet despite him not winning since Texas, there's a lot for Elliott to be happy about in 2024. His average finish this year of 9.5, is his career best through 15 races along with being the best among his rivals this season.