ELKHART LAKE – Chase Elliott thinks it might be hard to pass Sunday at Road America.
If strategy plays out the way he hopes, that will work out well for him.
If it doesn’t, he hopes he’s wrong.
“A lot of the places we’ve gone this year with narrow braking zones and narrow corner entries have just made it that way,” Elliott explained Saturday after winning the pole for the Kwik Trip 250 on Sunday. “Martinsville was that way. Gateway was that way.
“Just kind of these narrow, flatter corner entry places that it’s hard to get some fresh air (to the nose of the car), it seems the inboard side of the car, where you used to (be able to) get a headlight out on someone through whatever turn it might be, if you could just get that headlight out you had a little sniff of fresh air and it would benefit you.
“Now it’s like the inboard side of the car isn’t as effective to clean air as it used to be. You have to be farther out to get some clean air to the nose. There’s just no further out to go. You’re not going to get that big of a gap.”
That’s life in the NASCAR Cup Series with its Next Gen car. Everyone’s learning curve is steep.
“We’re going to have to be really smart tomorrow about how we do our strategy to how I drive the car to make sure we’re good throughout an entire stint,” said Elliott, who won from the back of the field a year ago in the Cup Series’ return to Road America.
“That’s fine. It’s all good. It’s not necessarily a problem. I’m just saying that’s what it feels like to me. Somebody else might give you a different answer.”
Group qualifying Saturday involved two rounds with five drivers advancing out of each of two groups in the first round, followed by a top-10 shootout. Elliott, who was fourth-fastest in his group, picked up about three-tenths of a second to lap the 4.048-mile, 14 turn course in 2 minutes 14.427 seconds.
Including Elliott’s win at Road America last year, the 2020 champion and current point leader has collected seven of his 15 Cup victories on road course. This is only his second road course pole of the 11 he has won.
Chase Briscoe qualified second at 2:14.465 with a lap on which he said he did “a terrible job.”
“I have to learn from that,” Briscoe said. “I feel like I gave up six-tenths (of a second) easily in different corners.
“I have a really good car and that will be big for tomorrow. We will see if we can put it all together and get the driver to stop messing up. I think we should have a really good shot tomorrow.”
Reigning series champion Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick will share the second row with the Fords of Austin Cindric and Michael McDowell behind them.
Toyota had a tough day; Kyle Busch qualified 13th-fastest and Denny Hamlin 14th. Daniel Suarez, who scored his first Cup win in the most recent road race at Sonoma Raceway, was 19th.
Josh Bilicki of Richfield, the only Wisconsin driver in the field, qualified 26th.
The green flag is set for 2:25 p.m. Television coverage on USA Network begins at 1 p.m.
Top Air Force general attending Sunday
Among the dignitaries set to take part in prerace ceremonies Sunday is Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., Air Force Chief of Staff, one the most senior uniformed leaders within the Department of Defense. Some fans on-site may be affected by additional security measures.
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