Dale Earnhardt Jr. Backs Chase Elliott to Make It to the NASCAR Playoffs, but Warns Against “Another Flat Week”

Because he is winless this season so far along with the fact that he’s had more than a few bad results in the races he’s completed, Chase Elliott making it to the playoffs is something of a hot topic at this point in NASCAR. Some believe he’ll be able to make it in and some believe he won’t. Dale Earnhardt Jr. falls in the former category.

The Hall of Famer recently claimed he backs Elliott to point his way into the playoffs, something Denny Hamlin also claimed. But at the same time, he isn’t imagining it to be through Elliott taking a trip to the victory lane. Instead, Junior believes he will do it through points.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes Elliott will make it into the playoffs

During a recent episode of his podcast show, Earnhardt Jr. opened up on how the #9 driver can land himself into the playoffs. “Chase Elliott is -60, he lost a few points, he lost 5 points at Atlanta, I believe,” he said.

“So now what he needs weekly to point his way in, to get to the playoffs is 9 points a week, still doable, still doable. There’s week when he got 20, 15, 12, he can still do it. Especially where he has a big race where he can get tons of stage points and a Top 3 finish.”

This led his co-host Mike Davis to point to the fact that Elliott will have no room for error from this point on, to which Junior replied, “There really isn’t. I don’t think he can have another flat week like he did this past weekend in Atlanta.”

“I am a believer that Chase points his way in. There’s a very, very big competition in the booth between me, Letarte, and Burton about whether Chase points his way in. They don’t think he can. They think he has to win. I believe he can do it on points and I believe he will. This weekend hurt my chances a little bit,” he continued.

“But I still believe Chase gets right up in there.”

Junior on whether Chase Elliott should’ve been snowboarding

A big moment in Chase Elliott’s 2023 season came when he injured his leg during a snowboarding accident, ruling him out of racing action for several weeks and eventually hurting his momentum and rhythm. After his incident, many were divided over whether Elliott should’ve been snowboarding in the first place.

But Earnhardt Jr. claimed it is a matter of personal choice. “If you want to go do things, go do things. And you assume that risk,” he had said. Junior also pointed out that a driver should have someone on their team letting them know about certain factors, aspects, realities, and repercussions associated with their day job.

“As long as you have that information and understand all of those repercussions go do whatever you want to do,” he added.

These things and information, Earnhardt concluded, if a driver has, then that’s fair enough.