Chase Elliott heads into Martinsville for the 2025 Xfinity 500 in the most stressful situation a playoff driver can ever be. He sits last among the Round of 8 contenders, 62 points below the cutline for the Championship 4. For the No. 9 driver, the equation is simple: Win.
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Elliott will start eighth on Sunday, but he has shown plenty of speed heading into the weekend. The field was split into two groups for practice, each getting 25 minutes of track time. And Elliott made the most of his session.
He topped the practice charts on Saturday with a lap of 95.796 mph, just edging out spring winner Denny Hamlin’s 95.791. When asked about his approach to the must-win race and whether aggression would define his strategy, Elliott chose to stay grounded.
“I mean, the goal is to be fast enough where you don’t have to do wild stuff. I mean that, that’s the goal every week, right? Like you don’t ever want to put yourself in a position where you’re having to throw Hail Marys. Like that’s bad. You know it’s cool when it works great. I’m super happy for them,” said Elliott.
“But, the goal is to just be good enough and let your performance be at a level where you can call races the right way, do things the right way, put yourself in position the right way, and not have to do those wild and crazy things to win,” he added.
The odds may be stacked against him, but Elliott has history on his side. Martinsville has been one of his stronger tracks. He scored his lone win there in 2020 and holds an impressive 11.7 average finish on the half-mile paperclip.
Even last year, he nearly raced his way into the Championship 4 at the same venue. Elliott dominated early in that 2024 race, winning Stage 1 and leading 129 laps, second only to Brad Keselowski’s 170. But Ryan Blaney snatched the lead on Lap 486 and sealed the victory by 2.593 seconds. Elliott finished runner-up that day, narrowly missing out on victory as well as a place in the Championship 4.
Elliott’s recent form at Martinsville, three straight top-five finishes, would give hope to his fans and his #9 team. Starting inside the top 10 once again, the HMS driver knows what’s at stake. If Elliott can keep his nose clean and control the pace, Martinsville might just be where he turns the tables for the whole pack.
