{"id":28535,"date":"2019-11-03T20:20:55","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T02:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=28535"},"modified":"2019-11-04T19:00:41","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T01:00:41","slug":"nascar-sunday-texas-notebook-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/11\/03\/nascar-sunday-texas-notebook-4\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Sunday Texas Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Chase Elliott faces must-win scenario after early crash in Texas<\/b><\/p>\n

FORT WORTH, Tex. \u2013 After another disaster on the race track, Chase Elliott has a crystal clear vision of his only path to a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, pits following an on-track incident during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on November 03, 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

On Lap 9 of Sunday\u2019s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Elliott\u2019s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet broke loose as he was running a higher lane in Turns 1 and 2. The car slammed into the outside wall, severely damaging the rear of the Camaro.<\/p>\n

Elliott\u2019s crew made repairs, beating the time limit under NASCAR\u2019s damaged vehicle policy by roughly 10 seconds. Elliott completed 312-of-334 laps and finished 32nd, a result that left him 78 points below the current cut line for the Championship 4 Round of the Playoffs.<\/p>\n

In other words, Elliott must win next Sunday at ISM Raceway at Phoenix if he wants to race for the series title at Homestead-Miami Speedway. There is no other option.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made a mistake, got loose and crashed,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cI really hate that happened. Obviously, it\u2019s not good and not what you\u2019re looking for. It\u2019s just my mistake and there\u2019s really no excuse for it. It\u2019s just all eyes on Phoenix.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, today was very self-inflicted. I made a mistake that there\u2019s really no excuse for, and that\u2019s what you get. You make mistakes, you put yourself in a bad position, and that was all on me today. I hate that it happened, but it did, and we\u2019ll just go on to Phoenix and try to get a win out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

RYAN BLANEY FIGHTS ILL-HANDLING CAR, FACES UPHILL BATTLE AT PHOENIX<\/b><\/p>\n

Ryan Blaney manhandled his No. 12 Team Penske Ford to an eighth-place finish in Sunday\u2019s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, but he finished the night 23 points behind fourth-place finisher Joey Logano\u2014who also is fourth in the standings\u2014for the final two spots in the Championship 4.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ryan Blaney, driver of the #12 Wabash National Ford, looks on during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on November 01, 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt was a long night,\u201d Blaney acknowledged. \u201cWe struggled really bad all night with track position, and then I felt like, even when we got a little bit of it, we still weren\u2019t very good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried a lot of things tonight, and they didn\u2019t really work. Unfortunately, we didn\u2019t really get many stage points and the 4 (Kevin Harvick) winning didn\u2019t help our cause, but we have to run better than that anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nor did it help Blaney\u2019s cause that Ryan Newman, a driver notoriously difficult to pass, held him up during a green-flag run and blocked Blaney\u2019s run off Turn 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cRyan is Ryan and he is going to race hard,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cI was mad that I had a massive run up top and he just turned right and it made me jump out of the gas and get tight and hit the fence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I was mad about. I was fine with the racing before that, but when someone has a big run like that it\u2019s like, \u2018C\u2019mon.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That incident likely didn\u2019t change Blaney\u2019s situation heading for ISM Raceway at Phoenix.<\/p>\n

\u201cGotta win,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cHopefully, we go do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

DENNY HAMLIN GOES FROM FAVORITE TO LONG SHOT IN ONE WILD RIDE<\/b><\/p>\n

The weekend was going well for Denny Hamlin\u2014up until the 80th lap of Sunday\u2019s AAA Texas 500.<\/p>\n

Hamlin came to Texas Motor Speedway second in the Playoff standings and qualified third for the second race of the Round of 8 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Office Toyota, drives through the garage area during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on November 01, 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

But on Lap 80, while racing for position in the top 10, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota turned sideways in Turn 4 and slid through the infield grass, damaging the splitter on his Camry.<\/p>\n

Hamlin lost two laps on pit road while his crew repaired the car. Slowed by the damage, he finished 28th, six laps down.<\/p>\n

The real damage, however, came to his standing in the Playoff hierarchy. A five-time winner this year, Hamlin dropped to fifth in the standings, 20 points behind fourth-place Joey Logano\u2014a huge deficit with one race left to determine the Championship 4 drivers.<\/p>\n

Now a season that Hamlin characterized as his best to date depends on a stellar performance at ISM Raceway in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust got up in that stuff (traction compound) before it was really broke in,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cJust lost control. That\u2019s all there is to it. Proud of the whole FedEx team for putting their best effort forward so we could be there at the end. Did the best we could, and we\u2019ll go to Phoenix and try to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe car and the effort will be there, that\u2019s for sure. There\u2019s no doubt in my mind that we can go there and win. In these circumstances, I like the challenge. We\u2019re going to go out there and give it our best shot and put our best foot forward and see if we can\u2019t get a win next week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Chase Elliott faces must-win scenario after early crash in Texas FORT WORTH, Tex. \u2013 After another disaster on the race track, Chase Elliott has a crystal clear vision of his only path to a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship. On Lap 9 of Sunday\u2019s AAA Texas 500 at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":28553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[366,16,21],"class_list":["post-28535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-aaa-texas-500","tag-nascar","tag-texas-motor-speedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/TMS2_MENCS_Elliott_Pit_110319.jpg?fit=2529%2C1686&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-7qf","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28535"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28556,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28535\/revisions\/28556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}