Chase Elliott is about the unluckiest driver on the Cup Series grid right now. Despite overcoming a left leg fracture and a race suspension in 2023, he hasn’t been able to find his knack for speed yet. Yet to finish inside the top 10 after three race weekends in 2024, he heads to the Phoenix short track on Sunday. Weighing down on him as he does so is his name in an unfortunate top 10 list.
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With his 12th-place finish in last Sunday’s race at Vegas, Elliott became one of the ten active drivers with the longest winless streak. The last time he visited the victory lane was at Talladega in 2022. 37 races have gone by since for the 2020 champion and he is still struggling to get maximum points again. Leading the list is Justin Haley, having gone 108 races without a win.
One other former champion who finds his name on the list same as Elliott is RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski. His latest win came 101 races ago at Talladega. Elliott’s teammate Alex Bowman has gone 64 races without a win and stands 5th on the list above Bubba Wallace (46) and Erik Jones (48).
Longest active winless streaks in the NASCAR Cup Series pic.twitter.com/qlbHZLmFW6
— Trey Ryan (@TreyRyan99) March 7, 2024
While Elliott’s winless streak isn’t the top storyline of the ongoing season yet, he will want to end it rather sooner than later. His previous longest winless streak came only at the onset of his career when he went 98 races without a win.
His best finishes since Talladega 2022 were at Fontana and Indianapolis (runner-up in both).
Joey Logano, another champion who risks breaking into the winless list soon
2-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano’s name might not be on the list yet, but it could be soon. The Team Penske star has gone 34 races without a win thus far and trails Elliott by just 3 races. Should the latter end up victorious at Phoenix, his name could be swapped with Logano’s.
I know a lot of the focus has been on Chase Elliott’s winless streak, but one that I think is being overlooked is Joey Logano
Joey’s winless streak is 34 races currently, just 3 races less than Elliott’s. https://t.co/OVVNr6MGER
— Trey Ryan (@TreyRyan99) March 7, 2024
However, as far as the odds of favoritism go, Logano stands taller with opening odds of 14-1. Chase Elliott enters the short track with 18-1 odds. Brad Keselowski stands further back with 22-1. The upcoming race will be the season’s first short track event and will feature NASCAR’s upgraded package. Of those on the winless list, Logano has the highest recent average finish at 8.5. Elliott’s average falls to 13.0.
The Hendrick Motorsports star driver has already won at Phoenix once in 2020, but whether it can be the location where he breaks the bad spell that has been marring him is a question waiting to be answered.
