“Thought it was going pretty good”: Chase Elliott makes feelings clear after “bad decisions” led to an unfortunate result at Las Vegas

Chase Elliott revealed what went wrong for him and the No. 9 team last Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Having started the race from P4, the Dawsonville native thought the overall balance in his car was great. However, a few bad decisions jeopardized his bid for the Championship 4.

Elliott, who drives the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports, is currently in his 10th full year in the NASCAR Cup Series. He won his maiden race of the 2025 season at Atlanta Motor Speedway, snapping a 44-race winless streak. His most recent victory came at Kansas in September.

Unfortunately, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Elliott suffered a pit road penalty as a result of an old tire from his car rolling into another pit box. He was then forced to make an additional trip down the pit road and serve the pass-through penalty under green-flag conditions. Reflecting on the same, Elliott told NBC Sports,

“I thought it was going pretty good for a little while at least. Started the day strong. Thought we had our balance in a really good spot. I was kind of happy about the way it was driving, everything. Unfortunately had a penalty on pit road.”

“I probably missed a little bit on my first read. We only had a couple shots to try and help that,” Chase Elliott continued. “Yeah, I got behind on adjustments for the track position. Couple bad decisions on that last restart.“

All Elliott could bring home was a P18 finish and 25 points. As of today, he sits sixth in the championship standings with a 23-point deficit on the cutoff line. 33 races into the season, the 2020 Cup Series champion has amassed 10 top fives and 17 top-10s, besides 424 laps led.

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Chase Elliott lauds NASCAR’s horsepower boost decision for 2026

Per reports, NASCAR is expected to increase the horsepower on its Cup cars at road courses and tracks less than 1.5 miles next year onwards. Chase Elliott thinks that’s a great move. He even lauded the decision during a recent interview with Frontstretch.com.

The current baseline for NASCAR engines is 670, which will bump to 750 throughout the 2026 season. Test sessions will be held at North Wilkesboro Speedway in early December.

“I think it's a good effort for sure,” Elliott said (7:06). “And I think until we give that a go, who knows? You know, I think it's easy to sit here and say it's not enough or, you know, it's not this or it's not that, but it's something, right? It's something and they're trying. So I applaud them for, you know, for the effort and, you know, trying to keep the engine shops in mind."

Next up for Chase Elliott is the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Scheduled for next Sunday, October 19, the 188-lap event will be televised on USA (2 pm ET onwards) with live radio coverage on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Channel 90.