Chase Elliott: HMS missed potential Pocono NASCAR win by ‘one little adjustment’

Chase Elliott was left to rue lost potential in The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway, despite finishing inside the top-5. The Hendrick motorsports driver expressed that a NASCAR win was 'well within reach' and that he was on par with podium finishers Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin.

Elliott entered the 400 mile event with 100 laps of experience from Saturday's Xfinity Series race, where he missed out on a race win after an on-track incident with Justin Allgaier. Nonetheless, he finished fourth and was looking to carry the momentum to Sunday's Cup race, where he began on the backfoot at 18th.

He made up ten places by Stage 1 and reached the top-3 by Stage 2, making him one of the five drivers to earn stage points in the 160-lap affair. However, the HMS driver slipped back to fourth and was eventually overtaken by a charging Ryan Blaney on lap 115, leaving Elliott to finish fifth. Notably, Blaney had started the race two spots below the #9 driver.

Speaking to the media post-race, Elliott reflected upon the result and said,

"We were just right there, you know, right one little adjustment away from being right with Ryan and Denny. I feel like it's all well within reach. We just got to piece it all together at the same time."

The results marks Chase Elliott's fourth straight top-10 finish at the 'Tricky Triangle'. The Georgia native is still looking his maiden win of the season and lock-in a playoff spot, although he's currently 160 points ahead of the cutoff line, while his HMS teammate, Alex Bowman, sits right at the edge of elimination in 16th.

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Chase Elliott details his struggles at Pocono

Chase Elliott opened up about handling issues enroute his fifth top-5 result at Pocono Raceway. He admitted to struggling with grip on turn three, which attracted 'more and more mistakes' for the former Cup Series champion.

"We were just really loose in (turn) three. I felt like I could pace pretty good through turns one and two, but I just could not get turn three right all day. Certainly as the run went on, it became more challenging for me and I started making more and more mistakes over there," he said via Speedway Digest.

"I thought Denny (Hamlin) and Ryan (Blaney) could do a better job of kind of stalking the person in front of them to get themselves opportunities. I was just a little bit too far back and I think it was mainly because of that," he added.

Chase Elliott ended his day at the Pennslyvania Oval with a points tally of 43. Up next, the #9 driver heads to Echopark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway), where he last finished at 20th, early in the season.

The event also marks NASCAR's Round 1 for the In-Season Challenge. TNT Sports is set to take over the reigns from Prime Video and begin it's five-race coverage with the Quaker State 400 Avaliable on Walmart on Saturday, June 28.