If you happen to regarded on the NASCAR Cup Sequence factors standings, you’d name anybody who says Chase Elliott is having a disappointing season loopy.
The 2020 NASCAR Cup Sequence champion presently sits tenth within the playoff standings, 42 factors above the cutline, and ninth within the common season standings.
But a better take a look at Elliott’s season, to this point, signifies that similar to his damage riddled 2023 marketing campaign, he does not have the velocity to contend for race wins, a lot much less the championship.
Going into 2023, Elliott had made three consecutive championship races, together with the aforementioned 2020 race, which he received. Nevertheless, after a leg damage whereas snowboarding, Elliott missed the spring Las Vegas race, not returning till Martinsville over a month later.
The stretch of lacking races, mixed with a one-race suspension, after deliberately crashing Denny Hamlin within the Coca-Cola 600, resulted in Elliott lacking the NASCAR Cup Sequence playoffs for the primary time in his profession.
For a driver and staff with a championship pedigree, it was stunning, although they missed out on plenty of factors with Elliott lacking seven races in whole. 2023 was primarily was wasted season, however 2024 was seen as a clear slate, an opportunity to clean away the painful recollections of final 12 months with a season that reinvigorated Elliott’s rabid fan base and proved that he was nonetheless one of many sport’s elite.
As an alternative, Elliott and the as soon as venerable No. 9 staff are removed from the profitable tempo. Their solely prime 10 is an eighth-place end at Bristol.
The newest second that exhibits the staff is not the place they as soon as had been? Elliott incurring a course-cutting penalty on himself at this previous Sunday’s race at Circuit of The Americas, the place he received in 2021.
Whereas the penalty is comprehensible, as Elliott was uncontrolled and wanted to chop the course to keep away from a attainable wreck, it is one other uncharacteristic mistake for a driver as soon as topped the very best to ever grace a street course in NASCAR.
It isn’t like Elliott has been worn out from the lead late in races, both. He is solely led 18 laps all season, with 13 of these coming within the season opening Daytona 500, and the opposite 5 at Bristol. The staff is solely of peg or two off their teammates in William Byron and Kyle Larson. So what? The entire subject is off a peg in comparison with Larson and Byron.
However one driver actually places Elliott’s 2024 struggles into perspective. Elliott’s different teammate, Alex Bowman, had an analogous season in 2023. The distinction? The No. 48 staff, whereas sitting decrease in factors, has punched again, with three prime 5 finishes, which is greater than all of their Hendrick teammates mixed by way of the primary six races.
Elliott has confirmed to be a championship caliber driver. He even led the collection in wins (5) in 2022, his final absolutely wholesome season. However with a winless streak relationship again to the autumn of 2022, automobiles that lack race-winning velocity and a fanbase getting antsy, it is time to activate the afterburners and look aggressive once more.
If there’s one massive takeaway from the primary six races of the 2024 NASCAR season, it is this: Even for NASCAR’s hottest driver, success just isn’t wherever near assured in a sport that takes no prisoners.
