Chase Elliott admitted on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway that he needed to up his game. Well, that’s been pretty obvious when you look at his 2025 stats. One top-five finish? The rest, mostly in double digits. Not exactly the kind of numbers you’d expect from NASCAR’s golden boy, but let’s be fair—nobody’s perfect, right?
Later on Saturday, Elliott went out and qualified second, giving his ever-loyal fanbase a glimmer of hope. And when Sunday rolled around, NASCAR’s most popular driver showed he wasn’t here to just make up the numbers. He seized the lead on lap 24, and the crowd erupted. And for a while, it looked like he might actually be onto something, leading a total of 42 laps in the first half of the 400-lap race. All was well in the world of Chase Elliott fans.
But then, as it always does, the second half came, and Denny Hamlin—being Denny Hamlin—decided it was time for him to step into the spotlight. Hamlin took control, leaving Elliott in the dust and effectively denying any chances of victory, not just for Elliott, but for everyone else on the track, too. The crowd went quiet, and by the end, Elliott had to settle for 4th place. It wasn’t the win he’d hoped for, but it was a step in the right direction. And Elliott, ever the professional, tried to find the silver lining.
“Yeah, it was better, for sure,” Elliott said, probably trying to convince himself as much as anyone else. “We got a little behind there. I wish I could have gotten Denny (Hamlin) in the second stage. We really, really needed control there. When you get into the second half of these races, it just gets so hard to make ground up. You saw that with Christopher (Bell) pressuring Denny. It just means a lot to have control, and unfortunately I couldn’t get that back for us. But overall, it was a really good effort by this No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet team. We had a really good Chevy today, but we just need a little bit more.”
That’s a rather charitable way of putting it. It wasn’t a victory, but at least it wasn’t another complete disaster. And to be fair, 42 laps led was Elliott’s best performance of the season so far—after leading a grand total of just two laps in all the previous races. So, there’s that.
“Yeah, we’ll see how the next couple of weeks go,” he added, which, let’s face it, is the kind of non-committal statement that every driver throws out when they’re not sure what to expect next. “But it was definitely nice to have a good day here today.”
In the end, while it’s not a win, Elliott can take some comfort in the fact that his team showed they can fight for the lead. The next few weeks will tell whether he can take this momentum and turn it into something more. But for now, at least he knows he’s still got the skill to keep the competition on edge. That’ll have to do—for now.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.