Ranked fourth place in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings, Chase Elliott has certainly established himself best among those drivers without a win. But for the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, that is not enough.
He’s ranked fourth in the championship standings – two of his Hendrick teammates, William Byron and Kyle Larson, leading the rankings. Consistency has certainly been key to Elliott’s season with seven top 10 and three top five finishes through the opening 13 races. His best effort has been fourth place – at both COTA and Martinsville.
He has been particularly good at this week’s Nashville concrete 1.33-miler winning the race in 2022 and scoring a fourth-place finish there in 2023. Looking ahead to next week at Michigan, Elliott has an impressive 10 top-10 finishes – including three runner-up efforts – in 14 starts.
“I thought we had a really good car last week at Charlotte,” Elliott said. “I think it’s a product of a lot of hard work and just a collective effort of trying to make some improvement. That’s always the goal, just keep chipping away. I think the team is in a really good spot.’’
Elliott knows he’s in a good place points standings-wise, but the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion and perennial Most Popular Driver isn’t satisfied with “pointing” his way into a title run. His last victory came a year ago at Texas Motor Speedway.
“Certainly better to be in that position than on the other side of the fence, no doubt,” Elliott said of his points position. “But I’d be lying if I said that was my top focus. It’s just not. I think that if you’re worried about barely getting into the playoffs, I think you have some work to do.
“It really is kind of the best way I can think about that. And just to talk about my thought process, I want to be better than that. I want to be in the group of people of how many playoff points do you have, not just barely getting in. Our expectations and goals are above that, and we hope that we can achieve all of our goals.”
