A significant tremor was felt in the front lines of the Cup Series points table after Sunday’s race in Iowa. Chase Elliott jumped past his teammate Kyle Larson atop the standings and now leads him by eight points. The effect was produced by yet another stellar performance from Elliott and a third-place finish. But how is it that a driver with just one win so far leads the field in points?
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The answer is consistency. Though Larson, Denny Hamlin, and William Byron each have three wins, their results haven’t been consistently good like Elliott’s. The #9 Chevrolet Camaro pilot has finished inside the top 20 in every race that he has started this season and has secured seven top-5s and nine top-10s. These numbers are what have given him enough fuel to finally pull ahead of the others.
Larson, in particular, has five results outside the top 20 and one race in which he did not run. His sporadic bursts of performance have ended up being Elliott’s biggest friend. Talking about his team’s consistency, he said, “I feel like we’ve been working on the right things throughout the course of the season but just to finish all the races you have to have some good fortune go your way.”
“I think we’ve been fortunate to stay out of trouble. You know, a couple of days where we probably should have been in trouble. So that stuff’s going to happen and it’s just part of racing.” Continuing, he noted that he was proud of his team’s work thus far and that he hoped to keep the ball rolling. 17 races into the season, Elliott’s season is beginning to bear significant resemblance to another run.
Why Elliott’s 2024 season bears strong similarity to the 2003 season of Matt Kenseth
The Cup Series season of 2003 is a pivotal one in the history of NASCAR. Driving for Roush Racing, Kenseth displayed a heightened level of consistency much like Elliott is doing now. He finished inside the top 20 in 32 of 36 races and won the championship with just one victory (Las Vegas) to his name. It was as a result of him winning the title with a single win that NASCAR decided to introduce the Chase format in 2004.
Sure, it is too early to say that Elliott will go on to win the 2024 Cup Series championship. But there’s no ignoring the fact that he has put in extremely impressive performances throughout the year and is emerging as a threat that not many eyes currently are wary enough of. With most minds on Larson and Byron, their teammate could end up grabbing the crown from under their noses.
