NASCAR: Elliott makes peace with finishing third

Chase Elliott once again came up short in his efforts to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway, but the rookie simply chalked his latest defeat up to a case of bad luck.

The 20-year-old led three times for 75 laps in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 and was pulling away from the field with five to go when Michael McDowell shredded a tire and reset the race. Eventual winner Martin Truex Jr. beat Elliott off pit road but both had to restart behind Ryan Blaney, Kasey Kahne and Carl Edwards on their 20-lap-old tires.

Truex got a much better jump than Elliott and won the race, forcing the 2014 Xfinity Series champion to accept third. Elliott has earned a reputation for being hard on himself when potential victories get away from his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team, but this was not such an occasion.

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"We have all watched this stuff long enough we know these races don't go green that long," Elliott said. "We see more cautions come out at the end of these races than we do not. That is just part of it; you've got to expect it and be able to embrace it and move forward. I feel like we did a good job controlling the things that we could control today."

Elliott didn't make much of Truex beating him out on pit road either, because there were so many random variables at play during that final sequence.

"You never know how things are going to play out," Elliott said. "Obviously, you hate to lose a spot on pit road but our guys did a good job all day. They were solid and those are the kind of days we have to have on pit road. We will take it as motivation and move forward."

Even though Elliott was unable to capture his first victory, the third-place result was good enough to propel him to sixth in the standings. He is currently 12 points ahead of the playoff cutoff with two races remaining in the first round.

But more importantly, his team had increased speed from the regular season, which is a good sign for the rest of his Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

"We are proud of the run we had today," Elliott said. "Obviously, I hate to come up short but that is part of life some days. We were fast and I think that is something to be happy about and we can move forward to Loudon with some motivation, I think, and get ready to get going."