Chase Elliott Refuses to Concede Inferiority to Kyle Larson after

Hendrick Motorsports put themselves in a moment under the lights at Bristol this Saturday. All 4 drivers have booked their berths in the second round of the NASCAR Playoffs leaving Thunder Valley.

moment under the lights at Bristol this Saturday. All 4 drivers have booked their berths in the second round of the NASCAR Playoffs leaving Thunder Valley.

The shiniest one at night’s end, Kyle Larson, led almost 92% of all 500 scheduled laps to grab his 5th season victory. Following up to give Rick Hendrick’s team a 1-2 finish, Chase Elliott finished right behind the #5 driver. As a result, Elliott coincidentally found himself on the wrong end of a new Bristol record. For those unaware, Kyle Larson’s 7.088-second Margin of Victory is the second-largest on the racetrack since the inception of the digital scoring system in 1993. But Elliott suggests there wasn’t as much to separate himself from his sword-wielding teammate, barring maybe only the results.

Chase Elliott admits Kyle Larson’s traffic control ruled Bristol

One can classify this year’s Bristol Night Race in two ways. For Kyle Larson fans, it was total domination of the competition. For others, the event was a near-spotless spectacle of traditional high-stakes short-track racing. Memories of the unpredictable tire wear from the Bristol Spring Race back in March bore heavy over the weekend. So when Goodyear announced they would bring the same tire sets this time around, the main point of contention was: would the same thing happen again, but this time on a relatively cooler surface?

Barring the stage breaks, there were only three cautions during the race, and no notable tire issues occurred. The only real “falloff” came in the form of Playoff eliminations, with Ty Gibbs, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr, and Harrison Burton, all getting knocked out of championship contention after Bristol. On the positive side of the new cutline, Kyle Larson will head to Kansas as the top seed of the Round of 12. Trailing him will be William Byron in fourth (+14), and Chase Elliott in seventh (+6). Alex Bowman is the only Hendrick driver inside the bubble with a -7 points deficit.

However, Chase Elliott’s friendly competition was with Kyle Larson. In a video of his post-race conference uploaded to Twitter by Peter Startta, the reigning Most Popular Driver talked about where exactly he lost to Larson. Elliott explained, “I feel like my car was really good. I don’t think his car was any better than mine. I think he did a little better job than I did getting into traffic, and that was certainly the difference… “