Elliott on Talladega: ‘You Would Think Those Guys Want to Win’

After the race, Elliott spoke to the press and detailed his surprise that others didn't take the same approach that he had in mind. 

“It’s tough,’’ Elliott explained. “You would think those guys want to win the race around me, but they just ride and ride and ride and they have to know in their minds they are waiting too long, even for themselves."

“I thought maybe one of them would get greedy and want to win, I certainly did. I knew if I went by myself it wasn’t going to work. For what it was, it worked out pretty good.’’

“For us, we just never got anything going, I feel like, until the end,’’ Elliott continued. “I was able to come in and put on tires toward the end of the race and have a little better rubber than those guys around me, which was nice, and I made some good moves to get up inside the top-five."

“Last few laps, (I) was really trying to make a run and do something there at the end. Those guys were being awfully patient with one another. I was very surprised. I mean, it was more than obvious that they were not going to help me move forward.’’

Even though he was unable to clinch the premier-series W, Elliott still performed well in the contest that was dominated by cars of a rival make. Six of the seven top finishers drove Fords, and while Joey Logano decisively won the restrictor-plate race for Team Penske, the No. 9 driver Elliott says he and his crew must continue their comeback in the next handful of events to fight for contention.

“For us trying to gain some points back, we needed a good finish [today],’’ Elliott ended. “We are trying to dig out of a bit of a hole right now. So, (we) need runs like we’ve had the past two weeks. So we’ll move on.’’