Obviously, it has to be applauded, the progress Toyota made from Sonoma, which was their worst result since 2007 to Nashville, which also wasn’t a good result; but the pace, the promise, was back. What deserves more applause is the guy who put the brakes on this promising pace, Chase Elliott.

Or at least spotter Brett Griffin feels the Hendrick Motorsports driver needs to be applauded.

In a recent episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Griffin dissected the big mistake by the Toyota crew chiefs that cost them their win and gave Elliott a chance to capitalize on for his win.

“I think they thought more guys behind them would come and you think you’re gonna drag guys behind you to the pit road. And I think when the first guy to pit comes off pit road 11th with four-five laps to go…you got no chance to come back and win the race,” he said.

“Chase Elliott man, shoutout to him. I thought it was gonna be a Toyota show.”

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Chase Elliott gave the Toyotas a hard one to swallow in Nashville

Despite the gains or because of the gains they made in Nashville from Sonoma, Chase Elliott winning gave the Toyotas a pretty big headache. Brett Griffin described how, for the Toyotas, Sonoma was a nightmare.

“The Toyotas were horrible,” he said. “I got to the airport and saw some of their drivers; they were heads down and shaking their heads like they were baffled.”

“And then you come back this weekend, and they completely dominated.”

Griffin admitted that while the finishing results didn’t reflect on their performance advantage over the others, having cars that Denny Hamlin or Kyle Busch had and then finding a way to take yourself out of contention to win is gonna be tough for Toyota.

“That’s gonna be a hard one to swallow,” he added.

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