Chase Elliott has been here before. There was a stretch back in the early summer of 2016, his rookie season, where he was close to his first career victory. Elliott, had six straight top 10 finishes and eight in a nice race span including six of those being top fives. He was close to victory. Instead, he had to wait 99 races before finally reaching a triumph.

“Yeah, this week’s been pretty unfortunate,” Elliott said following Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600. “We’ve had some tough losses in my career, for however many years I’ve been doing this, five, six years, unfortunately. It is what it is.”

Now, he’s back to end it. Heading into Thursday nights Alsco 500 (8 pm ET/FS1/PRN), Elliott should have won each of the last two Cup races. In Darlington last Wednesday night, he was second with a car in front leading on old tires. Rain was coming. He was crashed. At Charlotte on Sunday, he was leading on the 400th lap. It was the 600th mile of the race. That’s the scheduled distance.

Unfortunately, he has zero wins to show for it.

Four days ago, Elliott left the Darlington Raceway frustrated. The two-time defending NASCAR Most Popular Driver Award recipient, was crashed out by NASCAR’s hated villain in the closing stages of the Toyota 500. Busch, took responsibility for the midjudgement. A day later, Busch said he talked to Elliott about the incident and called him a “classy” person for how well he took it. Two days after the crash, Elliott spoke to the media defending his actions for flipping Busch the bird saying it was warranted and needed and that he believed Busch that it was just a mistake. What made Elliott frustrated though was, he was well on his way to winning since the car in front of him had old tires and Elliott on four fresh Goodyears. Plus, Busch is too good to make “rare mistakes” as Elliott puts it and unfortunately he was on the receiving end of one.

On Sunday, in NASCAR’s longest race of the year, one of their crown jewels at that, Elliott was able to take the bull by the horns and erase anything that happened to him prior. He should have wonfor the seventh time of his Cup career, but first in a crown jewel. His last win came on this very track eight months ago on the ROVAL. A race he’d misjudge the first turn on a restart but storm back to win in dramatic fashion.

Wait, did the caution light come on? That’s what my Timing & Scoring said. Was Elliott about to get screwed again? I looked at the TV broadcast and there’s William Byron, Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate spinning in Turn 2 of the Charlotte Motor Speedway oval.

Oh boy. First Busch on Wednesday and now his teammate screwing him?

“That’s got to be a joke,” Elliott said over his radio. Yes, that’s what I thought too. After all, my story was half way written for his win. It was sign, sealed and delivered. Elliott, came from the back of the lead lap to the front twice and was going to win right?

No. The most popular driver has the worst luck.

His crew chief Alan Gustafson saw ghosts. He called Elliott down pit lane during the final caution. Clean air rang king all night, but here comes Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet down pit lane while 10 others stayed out.

Race. Over.

While I get the reasoning behind this, I really do. Don’t come down pit road, and everyone else does. Come down pit road and what we saw happened happens.

Gustafson, remembered at the end of the third stage that he left Elliott out and he restarted third on old tires. He quickly fell to 17th in three laps. He’d finish at the tail end of the lead lap when it was all said and done. He wasn’t about to do that again.

“You just make the best decision you can based on the information you have,” a dejected Elliott said of the pit call. “When you are leading the race like that, people behind you are going to do the exact opposite of what you do. That was the situation we were put in.  Al (Gustafson) made the decision, we stuck with it, and it didn’t work out.

Johnson, an eight time Charlotte winner, four of which coming in the ‘600, feels for Elliott.

“It’s so hard to know what the right thing to do is,” Johnson said. Cliff (Daniels) had a great sense on what pit call to make. I feel for Chase (Elliott). Wednesday, he had such a great car. To be leading here and have a caution come out with a couple to go, I feel bad for him.”

What Gustafson forgot though was, Joey Logano also stayed out under that caution period in Stage 3 and he had the lead and clean air. Logano, was pedestrian all race but all the sudden had enough speed to hold off Alex Bowman and Martin Truex Jr. for the next 25 laps to pick up the stage victory.

Elliott, had a better car than Logano. He could have used clean air on the restart to win. Instead, he restarted 11th and charged up to third in two laps. What might have been, right?