Kyle Larson’s victory in the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night was overwhelming, and nobody knew that better than his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott.
While Elliott spent much of the race in close proximity to Larson on the track – even leading for 22 laps twice – it was evident to him that Larson wouldn’t be denied the victory without some strange circumstances.
Larson went into green-flag pit stops twice in the race, the first with Elliott in the lead and the second with teammate William Byron in the lead, and both times he came out on top owing to a much better performance on pit road.
By the end of race, Larson had built up a more than 10-second lead and barring a last-minute caution, his victory seemed assured.
“He definitely did a better job for sure,” Elliott said of Larson. “I thought he did the best job driving and being able to make pace and not abuse his tires each run.
“Yeah, best driver, best car won tonight. There’s no doubt.”
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Elliott, who won his first race of the 2021 season in a rain-shortened race at Circuit of the Americas last weekend, said he wasn’t disappointed to come up short in another Coke 600.
“We just keep pushing. We absolutely got beat tonight, no question,” Elliott said. “The only thing you can do is just look for more opportunities, be excited for another chance, and fortunately we have that next week, next Sunday, and the Sunday after that.
“We’ll just try to get a little better and me do a better job, us communicate better as a team, execute better, and try to have a better result.”
Next weekend, the Cup series returns to a road course for the first time since the 2019 season.
Elliot has won six of his 12 Cup victories on road courses over his career.
“Sonoma has been a place that I haven’t done a very good job at, I don’t feel like. It’s been a pretty big challenge,” Elliott said. “Looking forward to getting there, looking forward to another shot.”
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