When the Cup Series field traveled to road courses back during the waning days of the Generation 6 era, Chase Elliott reigned high as the man to beat. His heroics on the track type led to several dominant wins and high finishes. But the situation changed darkly when the Next Gen car was introduced in 2022.
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Between 2018 and 2021, he secured seven victories in tracks such as Watkins Glen International and COTA. At a career-high point, he won four straight road course races through 2019 and 2020. However, since 2022, he hasn’t reached victory lane yet. His last victory on a road course came in 2021 at Road America.
Fans on X reminisced at the downfall of their favorite driver and expressed disappointment recently. The thread began with a fan citing Elliott’s 2018-2021 era as a definition of “prime.” He further wrote, “he needs to bring that dawg out again.” Another fan noted, “He almost won Road America in 2022 at least lol. But since the next-gen, it has just been sad for him lol.”
He almost won Road America in 2022 at least lol. But since the next gen, it has just been sad for him lol
— JUST_CLAY (@reddickfan4888) January 24, 2025
Elliott finished in second place at Road America in 2022. It is by far his best road course result in the Next Gen era. Yet another fan had a more detailed take. They wrote, “He’s still the most consistent RC racer. Just bad luck in general since the gen 7 car came out.”
“It’s a much easier car to drive so it brought all the guys that were pretty good up to the same level as the dominant guys like he and Larson.” While this is a valid point of view, Elliott has admitted in the past that the Next Gen car has made it difficult for him to drive on road courses.
The biggest change that Elliott mentioned about road course racing
The major issue that the Hendrick Motorsports driver felt racing Next Gen cars on road courses was in passing. With the corners of tracks being as narrow as they are and the cars being larger than before, overtaking becomes more of a hassle. Elliott pointed this out in particular in a 2022 interview.
He said, “Just the difficulty in passing. It has become, in my opinion, way harder to do and to get the rear tires to live. It’s just hard. Anywhere that we go, the corner entry, the part of the corner that is narrow, is going to be an extreme challenge to pass.” Confidence and experience are the keys to such challenges.
This is why Shane van Gisbergen has been able to outclass the entire NASCAR field on road courses. He comfortably dive-bombs into corners and has superior braking abilities. Elliott, by comparison, does not possess half his experience. Maybe 2025 will prove to be the year in which he makes his comeback to being a road course ace.
