Given the fact that he was matched up against the driver who was 24th in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings, Hendrick Motorsports' Chase Elliott was a heavy favorite to advance from the semifinal round to the championship round of NASCAR's second annual In-Season Challenge.
Elliott simply had to finish higher than Front Row Motorsports' Todd Gilliland in Sunday night's Window World 450 at North Wilkesboro Speedway, and he would advance to the championship round against the winner of Team Penske's Ryan Blaney vs. Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell.
In the early going, it felt like a foregone conclusion. Gilliland hadn't finished higher than 15th all tournament and had largely managed to advance due to favorable matchups and misfortune striking each of his opponents. On the flip side, Elliott was running at the front at the four-turn, 0.625-mile (1.006-kilometer) North Wilkesboro, North Carolina oval.
But after a caution flag due to contact involving teammate Alex Bowman and 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick knocked him multiple laps off the lead lap, since he had just been into the pits, Elliott could never recover.
He finished three laps down in 17th place, while Gilliland placed one lap down in eighth.
Chase Elliott eliminated from NASCAR tournament
While Elliott was indeed a heavy favorite to beat Gilliland, his elimination shouldn't have been much of a surprise.
As discussed, Gilliland advanced to the semifinals, more or less, because of the poor results of his opponents. However, the same thing could be true for Elliott, yet nobody talked about it simply because a driver of his caliber would have been expected to advance anyway.
Much like Gilliland, Elliott advanced to the semifinal round without a single top 10 finish. And none of Elliott's opponents even finished higher than 29th when matched up against him during the first three rounds.
So over the course of the first three rounds, Chase Elliott was basically who everyone wanted to believe Todd Gilliland was.
But let's not pretend that Gilliland didn't earn the right to advance to the championship round, either. His eighth place finish was the best result at North Wilkesboro among all four drivers still eligible to win the tournament, and it was better than any finish Elliott had posted since the challenge began. In fact, Elliott is still without a top 10 finish since May.
Now Gilliland is set to take on Blaney, who beat Bell (11th over 19th) on Sunday night, in this coming Sunday afternoon's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Gilliland has placed sixth in both of his Brickyard 400 starts, and that included one finish ahead of Blaney in seventh a year ago.
Let's just hope it takes more than a 21st place finish to win this year's tournament.
TNT is set to provide live coverage of the Brickyard 400 from Indianapolis Motor Speedway beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, July 26. Don't miss the championship round of NASCAR's In-Season Challenge!
