Elliott runs out of time to capitalize on fresh tires at Sonoma

Chase Elliott was in the mix throughout the closing stages of Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, and with a bold late strategy call, the Georgian even briefly found himself in contention for the win.

While a victory ultimately wasn’t meant to be, Elliott was happy with the call afterwards. He came home third in Sunday’s race, running out of time to challenge winner Shane van Gisbergen as cautions and a small mistake hampered a late march forward with fresher tires.

“Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) made a great call there to get us on offense and at least give us a shot,” Elliott said. “Overall, I thought our NAPA team did a good job. Had a fast NAPA Chevy all day. Just needed a little bit to (catch) those guys. But we were right there in the mix and gave ourselves a chance.”

The 2020 Cup Series champ rolled off 13th for Sunday’s race. With the opening stages running caution-free, Elliott had to mount a methodical march forward. He came home 10th in stage 1 and finished outside the points in stage 2.

In the final stage, Elliott finally worked his way to the front. By the time the race rolled into its final laps, NASCAR’s most popular driver found himself third.

That would’ve been a good day on its own. But when the caution flew with 15 to go for a lost wheel on Cody Ware’s No. 51 Ford, Elliott’s No. 9 team elected to gamble on a potential win. He was the first one to come to pit road, leaving him 14th but on fresh tires coming to a restart with 11 to go.

The path to the finish was tricky from there. Elliott got a good jump on the restart and rose up to 11th, but a crashing Noah Gragson brought out another yellow. He climbed into the top-10 when the green flag flew with seven to go, but was again stalled by another untimely yellow when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was turned into the tire barrier in the eases.

That left Elliott eighth heading into what proved to be the final restart with our laps remaining. Rising to the front seemed unlikely at that stage, but Elliott made quick work of his closest competition and marched into the top three heading into the final two laps, just two seconds behind van Gibsergen.

But just when an outside shot to win presented itself, the window of opportunity quickly shut. Elliott ran wide in turn 2 on the penultimate lap and let Christopher Bell, who he’d passed on the prior lap, back by for third.

He managed to chase Bell back down, but the lost ground to van Gisbergen and runner-up Chase Briscoe proved too great to close. Elliott ultimately took the checkered flag in third, the same position he’d ran in before taking the late gamble.

“There was dirt on the road,” Elliott said of his trop off-course. “I got wide and then I ran in the rest of the dirt. It happens there at the top of the hill. People get right and it slings dirt left. You can’t see super well over the hill.

“I hate that. I was obviously pushing really hard. I didn’t feel like we were quite as good that run as we were the run before, Don’t know that it would have been enough - maybe to get Briscoe, I’m not sure about Shane.”

While it wasn’t the win they’d hoped for with the late strategy play, Sunday’s result continued a strong recent trend for the No. 9 team. Sonoma marked Elliott’s fourth top-five in the past five races, continuing a summer surge that includes a win at EchoPark Speedway and has seen the 29-year-old rise from fifth to second in the standings.

Elliott sits just 14 points back from Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron for the regular season title with just six races remaining before the playoffs.