AVONDALE, Ariz.—Chase Elliott has one bad season stemming from missing six races after a snowboarding incident and pundits have classified the racer as washed up.
Certainly, 2023 was not indicative of Elliott’s body of work—a winless season after amassing 18 victories over five years. Elliott had qualified for the Playoffs every year since graduating to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2016 and advanced to Championship 4 in his last three attempts, winning the title in 2020.
Yet in this “What have you done for me lately” world, pundits have wondered what’s going on with the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team? They’re not alone. Their driver feels the same way.
“Some weeks can be so different than others,” Elliott said. “Some weeks it might be a pit road thing. Some weeks it might be a restart thing. That’s hard. You just have to strive to make sure you’re pushing in all areas, because to get where you want to go, they all have to be good at the end of the day.
“If you know there’s a weakness somewhere, we just have to make sure we’re working on all of them.”
And the challenges are not lost on Elliott. Still, for the first three weeks of the season, the No. 9 Chevrolet has not finished worse than 15th. Last weekend at Las Vegas, he finished 12th to maintain a sixth-place position in the point standings.
On Friday, the Cup garage enjoyed their first 50-minute practice with the new short-track package. Just having the time to work with the team and the car proved beneficial to Elliott. During time trials on Saturday, Elliott qualified third—his best result since last August at the Brickyard.
“Yeah, I definitely thought we made it better from our first run, for sure,” Elliott said after practice. “That was encouraging. We were all out of sorts there on our first run. I thought we landed in a decent spot.
“We certainly have room to improve, but, yeah, I thought we made it better. I like some of the characteristics that we were able to adjust on, which is always encouraging anytime you start practice and you start changing things.”
The optimism from NASCAR’s most popular driver was a direct departure from the irritation he felt the last time the tour visited Phoenix Raceway in November. Following weeks of inquisitions from one track to the next, Elliott was ready to turn the page.
“I was at that point where our season was all but over and we were just trying to think about this year or at least I was, and just trying to think about what I could do to drive the car in a better way that suits the way it wants to be driven,” Elliott said. “But no, I wasn’t necessarily spent. Yeah, I was frustrated at different times. I could be frustrated today and you wouldn’t know it.
“Some days I might show it a little more than others, but it’s not because I don’t want to be here or it’s not because I don’t want to do good. In fact, it’s really the exact opposite. It’s because I do want to do well, and it’s because I do care. You can take that for whatever you want, but I just want to be good at my job. That’s about it.”
Although it has been 37 races since his last victory, Elliott isn’t changing what has brought him success in the past.
“Just work hard, you know, make sure you’re putting the time in,” Elliott said. “Pushing yourself in areas that you know you’re weak. I think a lot of times they’re staring right in the face and you just got to push yourself to get uncomfortable.
“I’m a pretty realistic person. I kind of look at things for what they are–probably too much some days. But I recognize that things aren’t just going to get better overnight. I have known that for a period of time now. I don’t know how many steps there are to getting to where you need to go. Until you encounter that entire journey, I don’t think anyone really knows. But I’m willing to take however many steps it takes to get there.”
Elliott doesn’t deny that there is room for improvement. After two wild cards to start the season at Daytona International Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway, where he finished 14th and 15th, respectively. the 28-year-old racer feels he’s making progress.
“That was our first report card, so we’ll just run more races, keep chipping away at it,” Elliott said. “Long ways to go and hopefully we can just continue to work in the areas that we feel like need to be worked on—and hope that those areas lend results.
“I thought we did a little bit last week. Was it good enough? No. Am I satisfied? No. Was it better than last fall? Yes, it sure was. So I think you just have to take the little improvements where you can get them, especially when you know you have a lot of work to do.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
