It was around this time last year that Chase Elliott suffered one of the biggest setbacks of his driving career. The Hendrick Motorsports star got himself into a snowboarding accident in Colorado a day before qualifying for the Las Vegas race and ended up missing the following six races because of it. A year later, while many consider the current season as one for him to use as a springboard to bounce up to his usual level of success, he doesn’t look at it so.
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From Elliott’s point of view, all that he seeks to do is to reach the maximum level of capability that he knows his team can reach. Currently sitting sixth heading to Sin City, his streak of winless races continues haunting him. He reasons that the #9 car and himself just haven’t had the speed that is required to win races.
Refusing to acknowledge that he could’ve magically won races in 2023 if it weren’t for his injury, he said, “I think more than anything, we just have not been performing and I have not been performing as I expect of myself, and like we expect of our team.” He finished his 2023 season with 7 top fives and 15 top tens and failed to make the playoffs. Adding to his miseries last year was the 1-race suspension that he received after wrecking Denny Hamlin at Charlotte.
A fresh look for the Nos. 9 & 24 at Las Vegas this weekend. #wallpaperwednesday pic.twitter.com/licjX0DqYw
— Hendrick Motorsports (@TeamHendrick) February 28, 2024
For crew chief Alan Gustafson, 2024 brings a fresh perspective and renewed hope. He said, hoping to break the team’s bad luck with a positive take on things, “What’s most exciting to me is the opportunity and the blank canvas we have this year to continue to build something that’s good.” Elliott and Gustafson share the longest-running driver-crew chief partnership in the Cup Series grid (9 years).
Is NASCAR’s Next-Gen car holding Chase Elliott back from winning?
A key stat that pops up when looking at Elliott’s performance sheet is the contrast between his performances before 2022 and after. While he did reach the victory lane five times in the Next Gen car’s maiden season, his average finish and speed were still lower than in the previous ride. A clear case of delayed adjustment to the car can be made from this.
Between 2020 and 2022, Elliott fired to the Championship 4 three consecutive times and won the title in 2020. He also won 12 races in this period. Since his last win at Talladega in 2022, he has accumulated a 36-race winless streak. Agreeing that the transition has been one of breaking “bad habits”, Elliott said, “We’ve identified some areas that need to be improved upon. Step one is identifying it. And then after that, it’s going to work and trying to find solutions.”
Hopefully, the driver will find a way to do that rather sooner than later in the 2024 season.
