Chase Elliott Gives Realistic Timeline for Judging the New Chevrolet Cup Body

Chevrolet will face a challenge of its own competing in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season. The company decided to update the design of the Camaro ZL1 in the offseason, and drivers now have to adapt to the changes in dynamics before long. Ahead of the Daytona 500, Chase Elliott was asked how long it would take for him and the rest of the bowtie brigade to figure the new body out.

He expects fellow Chevrolet drivers to understand the car and adapt to it as early as the races in Phoenix and Las Vegas. Being someone who has already gone through the process of transitioning to a different car, Elliott knows what to expect over the coming days. He strongly believes that his team’s incredible chemistry with the manufacturer will help keep things smooth and fast.

He said, “I went through a body change, I think ‘17 to ’18, if I’m not mistaken. It wasn’t what we thought it was going to be. We had done a lot of testing throughout the offseason and kind of missed, really. I’ve been on the other end of that, too, where we had a change, and we hit it well. I guess where I’m going with that is until we get in some racing environments, we’ll see.”

The box in which the drivers will get to work is a small one. They will have to be careful about finding ways to improve and not hurt themselves in the process. The bottom line, as he explained, is that improvement will only come with experience. Until drivers get to race on different track types under different circumstances, they will not fully know how the car behaves.

Kevin Harvick’s warning to Chevrolet drivers

The announcement that Chevrolet was introducing a new body for the Cup Series came out in November last year. Veteran driver Kevin Harvick spoke about it on the Harvick Happy Hour podcast and detailed that the same could result in a steep learning curve for drivers.

“They’re guessing right now,” he said. “They’ve done no more than guess at this point. They can tell you whatever they want. But they’re going to have to work out the balance of that new body.” He believes that it will be a while before teams find the formula to get the car to run well on all track types.

The upcoming Daytona 500 will showcase how the renewed bodystyle performs on the superspeedways. That’s the ideal starting point Chevrolet could have asked for.