One of the things which is on the minds of most NASCAR fans and insiders is whether Chase Elliott makes it into the playoffs this year or not. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has had a rather disappointing season so far considering he first missed many weeks of racing because of an injury and then one again because of a penalty. Add to that the fact that he hasn’t won a race so far and his situation becomes even more tricky.
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However, Denny Hamlin isn’t worried about Elliott making it into the next round of the season. In fact, Hamlin isn’t worried at all even though he believes Elliott hasn’t been running as well as he used to.
He recently argued why the #9 driver is more or less a lock for the playoffs and why his competition in that sense doesn’t stand a chance because of two main reasons.
Denny Hamlin remains hopeful of Elliott’s playoff chances while being critical
Speaking in a recent episode of his podcast show, Hamlin recalled a conversation he was having with his co-host before they started recording, and why he claimed Chase Elliott will make it into the playoffs. “I said, ‘Well, Elliott is a lock’ and you’re like, ‘you’re 60 back.’ And? He scores stage points. These other guys don’t consistently score stage points like they might finish well because of different reasons or they just run well, but they’re not upfront every week contenders,” he said.
Speaking about Daniel Suarez, Michael McDowell, Bubba Wallace, and AJ Allmendinger, Hamlin added he doesn’t think they have “enough speed” – “I mean, not with the racetracks that are left. I think they’ve made some hay here on the road courses in the last few weeks.”
With that said, Hamlin touched upon Elliott capitalizing on the two upcoming road course races, adding that Elliott hasn’t been as good on the road courses as he has seen him in the past.
“Is that the other guys are getting better? Maybe. Is his car not as good? Maybe,” he claimed.
Hamlin thinks Chase Elliott has two strong suits in his favor
Later in their conversation, Hamlin’s co-host mentioned a statistic about Elliott’s season so far, which suggested how the #9 driver has only finished outside the top 13 twice. But this led to Hamlin claiming that in spite of the stats, Elliott hasn’t “run that well.”
“I know stats are real, but f**k stats. Generally speaking, the eye test, he’s not been as fast, he will admittedly say, I’m not running as fast as I was before for whatever reason, but he’s finishing well and he’s getting stage points,” Hamlin described.
“He’s got two road courses where he’s not really falling off. The results are still good. Is he dominating on the road courses? Again, like AJ, not as much as he was for sure but he’s still going to give you a really, really good result for you and probably score stage points. And then the Michigans, he’s going to be strong, the Richmonds, he’ll be strong, I mean, all these tracks fit what I think Chase Elliott, I mean, he’s good everywhere, so that’s really hard to say. Maybe the superspeedways, he’s not as good, but I would still put him right there on the edge of one of the top five guys in superspeedways as well.”
“So Elliott’s in. I don’t care how you mix this thing up with seven to go.”
Hamlin claimed Elliott has a better chance of racing against his competition to make it into the playoffs as he’s got “better results” and he’s going to score the stage points.
