FONTANA — Chase Elliott spent his Sunday afternoon doing a lot of passing other cars at Auto Club Speedway, which can happen when you qualify 33rd in the field but have a strong ride.
The 2020 NASCAR Cup champion worked Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet all the way up to second place in the late laps of the Pala Casino 400 but couldn’t catch Kyle Busch.
It was nevertheless a nice bounce-back from the season-opening Daytona 500, in which he finished 38th thanks to a midrace crash that took out multiple cars.
Drivers have come to love Auto Club Speedway through the years because its wide surface leaves plenty of racing lanes.
“If you have a car that’s racing good, this is the place you can do a lot of passing,” Elliott said afterwards on pit lane.
Elliott eventually finished 2.998 seconds behind Busch, never able to seriously challenge the winner after the last round of pit stops under green flag racing.
“I didn’t feel like I had a very good pit sequence on and off pit road – that would have been huge,” Elliott said. “That would have been big.”
Elliott was amused that anyone would question how fast Busch would get back to victory lane after leaving Joe Gibbs Racing and signing on with Richard Childress Racing. Even though he had just one win (on the dirt at Bristol) last season and was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, he has 60 career Cup victories and two championships he won in 15 seasons at JGR.
“Why is anyone surprised by this?” Elliott said, smiling. “Kyle’s one of the best NASCAR drivers there’s ever been. That didn’t change overnight.”
LONG DAY FOR LARSON
Elliott’s teammate, Kyle Larson, had trouble early and spent the rest of the day looking gather what info he could for future races on tracks that are similar to Fontana’s 2-mile oval.
Larson’s car developed an electrical issue on lap 13. He pitted and tried to get back on the track, but had to drive it to the garage on the competition caution flag…
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