Chase Elliott improved his career-best Sprint Cup finish by one spot.
Elliott, who is in the running for the rookie honor this season, finished fourth Sunday in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
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Elliott replaced Jeff Gordon in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports entry this season. In the past few weeks, he’s shown exactly why he’s the driver for that ride with finishes of fifth at Texas and his fourth-place finish Sunday.
The 20-year-old was running eighth when he felt a vibration and had to pit early in the race, dropping to 32nd at the time before rallying back into contention late. He moved to as high as second before snaring his final finishing position. It was his second top-five finish in the 13 Cup races he has run. He won the 2014 Xfinity Series championship.
“It was really just (that I) had a really fast car, I think was the biggest thing,” he said of his finish. “Guys brought a good car this weekend. We started a little slow, didn't qualify as well as we'd like to on Friday but I thought we hit on a couple things yesterday in final practice that fortunately carried over to today and was able to kind of work our way up through there.
“Hate to have a loose wheel but guys did a good job overcoming that having a fast pit under green only losing two laps. That was big to keep us in contention there and try to get back on the lead lap. Definitely a long afternoon but had a fast car, and that was the biggest thing that kept us alive.”
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As he looked over his day at a track that saw several top contenders fail to finish well, Elliott spoke highly of his Hendrick Motorsports group — teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second — and admitted that he’s already thinking about improving in his return to the tough short track later this year.
“Definitely a cool place,” he said. “Looking forward to getting back here in the fall and trying to do a little better.”