Early Accidents in Practice Force Hendrick Teammates to Backup Cars

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Chase Elliott, the driver of the #24 Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet, stands in the garage area during qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series ISM Connect 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on September 22, 2017, in Loudon, New Hampshire. Photo – Sean Gardner/Getty Images

A bad week quickly got worse for Chase Elliott.

Shortly after his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jimmie Johnson clobbered the turn three wall at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Friday’s opening practice session, Elliott did the same when he carried too much speed into the corner.

Accordingly, both Elliott and Johnson will start Sunday’s ISM Connect 300 (2 pm ET on NBCSN), the second race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, in backup cars.

Elliott finished second in last Sunday’s Round of 16 opener at Chicagoland, but NASCAR penalized the No. 24 team when the sanctioning body discovered unauthorized modifications designed to improve the aerodynamics of the car.

Docked 15 points for the infraction, Elliott is racing at the Magic Mile without the services of crew chief Alan Gustafson and car chief Joshua Kirk, who earned one-race suspensions. Veteran Kenny Francis is calling the shots from the pit box this week, and early in Friday’s first practice, he had a backup car to prepare.

“Just got kind of loose into turn three and got up the track and ran out of room,” Elliott said after the accident. “I hate it. That’s not what we needed. We’re behind this weekend now, so that’s never good, but it’s Friday, so we’ve got another day and a half to get things turned around and try to get it fixed.”

Johnson said he was overly ambitious with his second lap and paid the price when he lost contact with the traction compound (PJ1) applied to the track to provide more grip in the first and third lanes.

“I had a good first lap, and entering turn three for my second lap, just got in there with a lot of speed anticipated it sticking,” Johnson said. “It didn’t quite stick, and then once I got out of the PJ1, there was just really no slowing down or directing it off the wall at that point.

“Came around and it got the fence. Definitely not the way we wanted to start. Frustrating, but we will take it and go figure it out.”