“It was fine”: Chase Elliott holds no grudges against Mike Rockenfeller despite missing out on a win at Indianapolis to Michael McDowell

Chase Elliott mentioned that he was not massively affected by Mike Rochenfeller holding him up, which cost him the win at Indianapolis to Michael McDowell.

The 27-year-old was held up by Rockenfeller towards the end of the race while Elliott was chasing McDowell for the win on the road course in Indianapolis. The German driver had apologized to Chase Elliott for his involvement in the race lead.

Mike Rockenfeller said in his post-race interview with Matt Weaver:

"I made a little mistake on pit lane, big time actually, I blew through the lights. We didn't have the best time, but I thought we were decent. I apologize if I cost him maybe a second or so there in the race."

In response to Rockenfeller's apology, Chase Elliott gave a crisp reply:

“It was fine”

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Chase Elliott analyzes his second place finish at the Brickyard

Elliott was full of praise for Michael McDowell for his win at the Brickyard and said that he needed to be a bit faster to close the gap to the race winner.

As per Motorsport.com, Chase Elliott said:

“Just needed to be a little better through the back half over there and get off of (Turn) 14 a little better just to have myself in a better spot getting into (Turn) 1. Just really appreciate the effort, man. Our (car) was really good, really good."

He continued:

"Just needed just a little bit more and came up a bit short. But congrats to Michael, man. He did a good job. Ran a great race and stayed mistake-free, and that’s what you’ve got to do to win.”

He added:

“I lost too much ground under that pit cycle and was trying to pace myself for the long haul. It kind of had that green flag feel. I thought I did that, just needed to do a better job getting through (lapped) traffic there.”

McDowell too returned the favor and termed the 27-year-old 'the best racer on the road course', adding:

"Chase Elliott is the best road racer in the Cup series. We know that right now he has the most wins. So you can’t statistically say that. He’s not the best he is the best right? And that was not a dig at Chase. All I was doing is looking at the stats. He’s not going to gain 40 points on us on the road courses. Now he could win. I would agree with him on that he can win for sure which obviously he was close today.”

It will be fascinting how Elliott bounces back at Watkins Glen next week.