Chase Elliott gets ready for Daytona 500

Chase Elliott ‘Proud’ of Team Effort After P2 Finish in Pala Casino 400 at Fontana

Despite a strong showing in Fontana, Chase Elliott is walking away with a P2 finish behind Kyle Busch in the Pala Casino 400. Even though he didn’t win, Elliott is “proud” of the effort his team put together. This is much better than their experience at Daytona last week.

Given the issues that happened at this race last year between Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson, it’s nice to see Elliott finish this season. He had a fast car and a good team on pit road. Busch just had a better car and a better team.

Elliott finished a few seconds behind the winner. Still, given where his team was at the end of last season, this P2 finish is a great result.

“Just really proud of our team,” Elliott said after the race, “we obviously didn’t run very good there towards the end of the year last year. Everybody really went to work hard over the winter just trying to get better.”

“I think we still have some work to do but it was really nice to just see a lot of that hard work just pay off and have the car driving like we were wanting it to do. That’s always a good thing. I appreciate everybody’s effort, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet. Congratulations to Kyle. For him to leave and go get the job done like that is pretty cool. He’s always been good to me so happy for them.”

Chase Elliott would have much rather had a win. Still, he will take a strong P2 performance. His teammate and rival Kyle Larson had issues early that kept him out of contention. But otherwise, it was a strong day for Chevy.

The top four spots in the Pala Casino 400 went to Chevy drivers. Busch, Elliott, Ross Chastain and Daniel Suárez. Then, Kevin Harvick finished his last start in his home state P5.

Chase Elliott Looking Forward to Las Vegas

Now the West Coast schedule takes the NASCAR Cup Series to Las Vegas. Chase Elliott is going to look forward to that race after having a strong run in Fontana. Elliott has never won at Vegas and is looking forward to having a good race.

Three times Elliott has finished in the top five at Vegas. He has a career-best finish of P2 that came in 2021 in September. The only issue is that Kyle Busch is going to be at home. He’ll have fire in his veins and a win in his pocket.

At this point, the 2020 Cup Series champion should focus on doing what he can to combat RCR and Busch. If Rowdy is having a comeback season, it might be hard for some of the other favorites to get wins.

Of course, all of this is a little too early to talk about. We are just two races into the season. Still, it is something worth thinking about.