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Seen behind the wheel of the #9 Hooters Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, Chase Elliott seemingly struggled during NASCAR's visit to Sin City last weekend.
South Point 400 marked the first race of the 2022 Round of 8. Held at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the 400-mile-long race saw significant Championship 4 implications with Team Penske's Joey Logano sealing his spot in the next round.
Chase Elliott, on the other hand, was seen having an off-weekend as the Dawsonville, Georgia native could not advance through the field towards the front of the pack. Having raced in the P15 to P25 bracket all day long, Elliott was seen missing from the battles up front. The #9 Chevrolet driver and crew at Hendrick Motorsports were aware of the struggles they had on the 1.5-mile-long track earlier this year but seemed optimistic going in.
Elliott spoke about how that optimistic approach did not work out for him and his team after the race and said:
“I did a really bad job all weekend. Not driving the car like it needs to be driven. Not being able to give good information to fix it. All-around poor effort on my behalf. When you perform that poorly, you get poor results.”
He continued:
“That’s how it works. We’ve got to get home and digest everything from today. We’ll see next week. I’ve got to do a lot better job driving the vehicle to have a chance for it to even matter.”
On a track where the team has struggled to get the car's setup right, Chase Elliott also mentioned how he could not offer proper feedback to his team throughout the weekend to make adjustments.
Chase Elliott believes execution in the Round of 8 matters more than experience
In a recent interview with notable NASCAR journalist Bob Pockrass, 2022 championship contender Chase Elliott spoke about the importance of execution. According to Elliott, execution during race weekends is as good as, if not better than past experiences in high pressure situations such as the Round of 8.
The Dawsonville, Georgia native spoke about how some of the current Championship 4 contenders have not been in a a similar position before, whereas he has, and said:
"I would like to say it (experience) helps but at the same time we didn't have any when we won it in 2020. I never had been in the final four, so I would like to say that it matters but good execution and a good week of preperation will trump whether or not you've been here before."
Watch the complete interview below:
NASCAR will go live next Sunday from the Miami Homestead Speedway for the second Round of 8 race this season.
