Was Chase Elliott’s late Charlotte pit stop a mistake? He still nearly won Coca-Cola 600

Editor’s note: Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 car failed NASCAR’s post-race technical inspection and Johnson was disqualified. The results have been updated to reflect the ruling.

Chase Elliott was two laps away from claiming his first victory at the Coca-Cola 600. Instead, it ended in devastation after a late-lap caution and call to pit by his No. 9 team.

No. 2 driver Brad Keselowski emerged as the first-time race winner.

“At the end, we caught a break,” Keselowkski said after the race. “Made the most of the break. Life is just as much about catching the breaks as it is making the most of them. Today, we did both.”

Elliott led Keselowki by half a second in the final two laps when a caution was called for No. 24 driver — and Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate — William Byron, who spun out around a turn. With the race forced into overtime, Elliott’s team then had a decision to make, and pitting for new tires didn’t work out.

“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” Keselowski said about the call to pit. “Just a tough spot to be in. I’ve been in that spot. Lost races that way. It stinks. It hurts.”

Eight leading drivers stayed out instead of pitting, including Keselowski. Elliott veered into pit road to have all four tires changed.

“You just make the best decision you can based on the information you have,” Elliott said. “When you are leading the race like that, people behind you are going to do the exact opposite of what you do.”

Elliott said his crew chief Alan Gustafson made the call.

“We stuck with it, and it didn’t work out,” Elliott said.

The No. 9 driver then fell to 11th place after re-emerging from the pit stop, but raced his way back to a third-place at the checkered flag.

“It’s very unfortunate,” Elliott said about missing the win. “I hate it for both myself and my team, our sponsors, the whole nine yards. Unfortunate.”

Seven-time Cup Series champion, and another one of Elliott’s teammates, Jimmie Johnson, crossed the finish line in second place, but his No. 48 car failed post-race inspection and he was disqualified early Monday morning. Cup Series director Jay Fabian said that Johnson’s car’s rear alignment failed in the Optical Scanning Station (OSS) portion of technical inspection. Johnson was relegated to a last-place finish (40th) and Elliott was bumped up to second.

Johnson stayed out on the final caution to run side-by-side with Keselowski on the restart before Keselowski pulled ahead.

“I feel for those guys,” Johnson said of Elliott. “It’s so tough being the leader making those late-race decisions for pit road. I’ve lost some like they have. I’ve won some, and I feel for them.”

Johnson said that the silver lining was the speed the Elliott’s demonstrated. NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver Elliott led 38 laps of the 405-lap race, all of which he led in the fourth and final stage until overtime.

“This is only making them stronger and only making Chase more of a fierce competitor than he already is,” Johnson said, adding that an incident from Wednesday night’s race between Elliott and Kyle Busch that forced Elliott from a top-three finish would also help fuel the young driver.

Like Johnson, Keselowski noted Elliott’s speed.

“I also recognize that Chase was really fast today,” Keselowski said. “Probably if it had been just a raw speed race, he would have won.”

“Life is not always fair like that both ways,” Keselowski continued. “You just try to take advantage of it when it’s on your side.”

NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 results

This story was originally published May 25, 2020 at 6:00 AM.

Alexandra Andrejev

The Charlotte Observer

NASCAR and Charlotte FC beat reporter Alex Andrejev joined The Observer in January 2020 following an internship at The Washington Post. She is a two-time APSE award winner for her NASCAR beat coverage and National Motorsports Press Association award winner. She is the host of McClatchy’s podcast “Payback” about women’s soccer. Support my work with a digital subscription