“I don’t have anything to be upset about”: Chase Elliott content with top 10 finish in front of home fans

Chase Elliott reflected on his Atlanta Motor Speedway run after registering an eighth-place finish at his home track. The Georgian was content with his top-10 finish and cited his playoff opener race weekend as a "solid day."

The Hendrick Motorsports driver was the worst qualifier among all his teammates, with Kyle Larson being the fastest HMS driver in sixth, followed by William Byron in ninth. Alex Bowman stood third with 11th place in qualifying while Elliott came 16th.

However, as the Quaker State 400 race unfolded, Larson succumbed to an exit on Lap 56. After getting loose, the #5 Chevy driver rammed into the outside wall and collected Chase Briscoe in the chaos. The remaining HMS drivers were able to finish their 266-lap event.

Chase Elliott climbed to a seventh-place finish in Stage 1, followed by P8 spot in the second stage. In the final stage, however, the #9 Chevy driver contacted Austin Cindric's #2 Ford, and then, got sandwiched between Corey LaJoie and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., all on the pit road.

Moreover, Elliott shoved into Ross Chastain while running sixth on the last lap. As a result, the former lost two track positions and finished eighth in the Playoff opener race. The 2020 Cup Series champion summed up his "solid day" to Bob Pockrass and said.

"Had a solid day overall, stayed out the most mess, got a couple of stage points, and got a solid finish. So, I don't have anything to be upset about," Elliott said.

The 28-year-old then outlined the impact of his pit road wreck.

"I don't think it impacted how I drove, not under these circumstances, I thought we got pretty lucky on that," he added.

Chase Elliott was HMS' second-best finisher, Alex Bowman was the team's top scorer in fifth place, and William Byron settled in ninth.

Chase Elliott expands on the final lap wreck at Atlanta involving Ross Chastain

Joey Logano chose the inside line and Daniel Suarez was on the outside during the final overtime restart. The Team Penske driver led the restart with the Trackhouse Racing driver in second. Both of them received pushes from their teammates Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain, respectively.

Suarez momentarily lost the pace gained through his teammate's #1 Chevy. On the other hand, Logano was constantly getting help from Blaney's #12 Ford and took the white flag as the leader. But the Trackhouse Racing teammates were hell-bent on raking the win and reinstated their final lap draft.

This time, however, Chase Elliott wrecked into Chastain as the pack entered Turn 3. As a result, the latter got slammed into the wall and a multi-car pileup cascaded.

"The top lane was fine, I was coming to try and give Ross a pretty big push, which I think was gonna propel...I was too far back but I was too far to get clear in my lane advance to more. I was trying to get to Ross there and I got hit (by Bubba Wallace) right as I was getting to his bumper and unfortunately kind of got him up in the fence," Elliott reflected on the wreck via Dustin Long on X.

Chase Elliott's final lap wreck collected Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Harrison Burton, Cody Ware, Todd Gilliland, Josh Berry, and many more.