“But Nobody Listened…”: Why Chase Elliott Feels He Is Overrated as a Road Course Racer

The clock has been ticking for Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott to turn his 2023 season around. Now, going into the final five races of the regular season, he has been favored by several people considering his road course racing averages to still have the chance to get that win to make it into the playoffs.

Recently, while speaking with BVM Sports, Elliott explained why he felt overrated when people call him a really good road course racer, even as the statistics look more favorable on that side of things.

Chase Elliott doesn’t think he is a “great road racer”

Elliott mentioned, “I don’t I don’t look at them any different than I look at Richmond this weekend personally. Yeah, like I had won a road course race and a couple of years you know, we have we had a good run there for a little while.”

“Everybody promoted me to be such a great road racer and I tried to point to them but that wasn’t the case. We just had some, you know, some really good package worked out but nobody listened and then now everybody thinks that I’m this great road racer.”

“But you know, I look at the same as I look at Richmond and the same is I look at, you know, the other races Michigan and places coming up too.”

What have Elliott’s road course statistics been like?

Throughout his career, Elliott has won seven road course races, three out of which came at the Charlotte Roval, one at the Daytona road course, two at Watkins Glen, and one each at COTA and Road America. Historically, it is Jeff Gordon who has the highest number of road course race wins, totaling nine, followed by Tony Stewart with eight road course race wins.

But looking at Elliott’s number, it is evident why people think that he might be a great road course driver, at least on the current grid. Even if Elliott argues that it’s his racing package that translated to good weekends, his win rate speaks for itself.

And with no wins this season, his road course statistics are what several people are banking on for him to make the playoffs before the end of the regular season.