"Pretty sure our season's over": Chase Elliott's playoff hopes in jeopardy following Bristol wreck with JHN and Denny Hamlin

Chase Elliott suffered a DNF during the night race at the Bristol Motor Speedway after being rear-ended by John Hunter Nemechek in a domino reaction, which was initially caused by Denny Hamlin. With the retirement making him lose ground in the championship standings to his rivals, Elliott shared a glum verdict on his playoff hopes after his race ended prematurely.

The Hendrick Motorsports squad fielded four cars at the beginning of the Round of 16. While Elliott was among the highest-seeded HM drivers, a shock result could have shaken his chances of continuing in the postseason for long.

So, when he suffered an odd retirement at the Britsol night race, the 29-year-old was left dejected as he had suffered a massive points tax, which he seemingly could not afford. Though he was able to make it through to the Round of 12 after a string of unfortunate results hampered the lower-seeded drivers, Elliott shared a brutal self-assessment of his hopes of continuing in the playoffs, as he said (via Frontstretch):

"The tough thing that I see and I haven't had any time to digest this, right? I mean, we just crashed, and I'm pretty sure our season's over. Bob says it's not. So, I'm not really sure, what to think right now." (2:43 onwards)

Meanwhile, the incident that ruled Chase Elliott out of the 500-lap race occurred during the final stage. On lap 311, Denny Hamlin had bumped John Hunter Nemechek into the corner, leading him to tag the No. 9 car, leaving Elliott no option but to retire the car.

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Chase Elliott shares his perspective on the incident with John Hunter Nemechek and Denny Hamlin

Hendrick Motorsports' Chase Elliott - Source: Imagn

Chase Elliott has not returned to the victory lane since his last win in Atlanta. While he was not regarded to be in contention to take home the gold medal in Bristol owing to his 16th place starting position, he was consistently running inside the top-10 during the race and was hoping to score a big points haul.

However, in a jiff, his race turned on its head as he had to retire the car. Reflecting on the incident from his POV, the Dawsonville-native said in the same interview:

"The No. 22 [Joey Logano] got position on me. I thought I was doing the smart thing just trying to get back to the bottom. I guess, I thought I was clear back down in line. I visually saw the gap, so I just tried to get back in line, and I got a huge shot from behind. I’m not sure if the John Hunter [Nemechek] got pushed in there (by Denny Hamlin) or he wasn’t expecting me to come back to the bottom or what the reasoning was, but nonetheless, it happened and it’s done." (0:08 onwards)

Elliott currently sits seventh ahead of the onset of the Round of 8. He has an advantage of five markers over the cutline, but would like to extend upon his points tally to keep the torrid weekend in Bristol behind him and move ahead in the playoffs.