BRISTOL, Tenn. — Chase Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson never found the setup at Bristol Motor Speedway, stumbling through an uncharacteristically difficult weekend that ended with a 22nd-place finish.
Elliott qualified 18th and struggled to gain track position on the tight half-mile, where passing remains notoriously difficult. He failed to score stage points in either segment, a reflection of a No. 9 team that lacked speed and balance from the outset.
The race only unraveled further from there.
Elliott spun twice during the event, compounding a long day spent buried in traffic and unable to contend near the front. He ultimately crossed the line 22nd, marking one of his worst Bristol finishes in recent seasons.
The performance stood in sharp contrast to just two weeks earlier, when Elliott dominated at Martinsville to score his first win of the 2026 season. That momentum never carried over to Bristol, where the No. 9 team was largely invisible throughout Sunday’s race.
Despite remaining solidly inside the top five in the Cup Series standings, the drop-off highlighted how quickly fortunes can shift from week to week.
For Elliott and Gustafson, Bristol wasn’t just a missed opportunity — it was a weekend where nothing clicked.
And for a team coming off a win, that made it all the more surprising.
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