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Chase Elliott, the driver of the #9 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, had a very dominating 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season. He won a series-leading five races and also secured the regular season title before the playoff races.
The season finale race at Phoenix Raceway, however, went wrong for Elliott and marked a disappointing end to an otherwise strong season. On a restart with 112 laps remaining in the race, he made contact with Ross Chastain, which sent Elliott's #9 car into the wall. He continued but was no longer a threat with the damaged car and finished the race in 28th place, two laps down, missing out on his second Cup Series championship.
During the post-race interview, Elliott didn’t speak much about the incident but said that he is focussing on the off-season. He also claimed to be proud of his #9 Hendrick Motorsports team for the efforts they put into the championship race.
He said:
"Looking forward to the off-season, and really proud of our team for the fight that we put in today. I felt like we just kind of peaked right there before we crashed, and I felt like we got our car driving pretty good, we just had our best pit stop of the day, so that was all really solid. And heck, we were right there next to the 22."
Chase Elliott also confirmed that he is not looking forward to the 2023 season as he had a much better performance than last year.
He added:
"I don't really care about 2023 right now. We had five wins on the season, and we had -- you tell me what the stats are. That's how you would assess it, right? I know we won five races. That's more than we did last year."
“When we get back to Daytona next year, we'll be ready to go” – Chase Elliott
Chase Elliott later said that when he returns to Daytona International Speedway in the 2023 season, he will put the focus on the things that need to improve. He once again stated that the 2023 season is not on his mind.
He said:
"When we get back to Daytona next year, we'll be ready to go, and we will put the focus on the things that we feel like we need to put them on and see where we stack up then. Again, 2023 is not on my radar right now."
Chase Elliott will be seen in action next year at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, February 19th, 2023.
