“I don't think we were as good as Martin or Kyle” - Chase Elliott delivers honest assessment after his P5 finish at Sonoma

One driver in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season who has had a rollercoaster of a year is Chase Elliott, driving for Hendrick Motorsports. Elliott currently finds himself in a must-win position after two unplanned breaks from the highest echelon of stock car racing. The Dawsonville, Georgia native is looking to get his season and playoff chances back on track as the latter half of the year approaches.

NASCAR's visit to wine country on the west coast saw the 27-year-old finish in P5 during the Toyota/Save Mart 350. Gambling on a different tire strategy at the end of the 350-mile-long road course event, Elliott and Hendrick Motorsports aimed to elongate their final run to jump the field and hold off competition at the end.

With the strategy working out in parts for the #9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driver, Chase Elliott elaborated on what the end of the race felt like from his point of view. He said in a post-race interview:

"I don't think we were as good as Martin (Truex Jr.) or Kyle (Busch) probably there at the end but thought we were solid. Felt like we had to do something different with the strategy, so we did. That put us in the position to really have to stay out at the end and ultimately, I think it was the right call. I was just hoping more guys would do that."

Banking on his chances of the leaders being on the same strategy as him, Chase Elliott could not hold off the likes of Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, and Chris Buescher, who were running on new tires at the end of the race. Despite his P5 finish, Elliott was seen running strong on what is considered one of his stronger areas in racing, road courses.

Chase Elliott's thoughts on the lack of cautions during the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway

Notable NASCAR journalist Bob Pockrass pitched an interesting question to Chase Elliott when he asked the #9 Chevy driver the reason behind the limited number of cautions in Sunday's race. Hinting at the quality of the field, as well as the better road racing capability of the Next Gen car, an unsure Elliott said:

"I don't know. I do think certainly everyone is getting better, everybody's getting their setups closer."

Watch NASCAR return to racing at Nashville Superspeedway after a week-long break for the Ally 400 on June 25, 2023, at 7:00 pm ET.