The NASCAR 2023 season was a disaster for Hendrick Motorsports star, Chase Elliott. This was the first time Elliott did not make it through into the playoffs after multiple issues and overall lackluster performances. The problems began after the HMS driver suffered a snowboarding accident earlier in the season. But with time was able to overcome and adapt. Thereafter, all that was required was a win from Elliott. However, no matter how hard he tried, a trip to the victory lane remained firmly out of his grasp.
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He came close to winning at the Indianapolis Road Course race but ended up finishing right behind Michael McDowell. Despite the loss, the NASCAR community believed him to win the upcoming race at Watkins Glen. But as luck would have it, he’d run out of fuel mid-race and become stranded on the racetrack.
Losing out all hope to leverage his road course prowess to claim his way into the postseason.
Despite a terrible year, Chase Elliott had some milestones and achievements
Now, with all of the agony of missing out on the NASCAR playoffs for the first time in his Cup career or going winless for an entire season, Elliott did have some cherishable moments. Not everything was gloomy for the #9 Chevrolet Camaro driver. Some of the interesting things were crew chief Alan Gustafson calling his 650th race as a crew chief during the Talladega Superspeedway race back in April.
Then Elliott’s car qualified in the owner’s playoff and made it up to the round of eight. Elliott and his team achieved several other notable accomplishments as well throughout the season.
Some of those include leading 1,040 laps at Martinsville Speedway, having a fifth-best average finish of 13.1 among full-time drivers, and performing well on serpentine layouts with three top-five finishes and an average finish of 10.2. The No. 9 pit crew had the ninth-fastest average four-tire pit stop time of 11.228 seconds in the series. Along with that, there was also the consolation of not being the worst driver in his own team. Of the four Hendrick Motorsports drivers, Chase Elliott finished in third place, ahead of Alex Bowman.
But one can be more or less assured that in the coming season, Chase Elliott will not only bounce back and do better than 2023, but prove all of his doubters wrong.
