The Old West gifted Chase Elliott a victory that he will hold dearly to his heart. He broke a 42-race winless streak on the Texas Motor Speedway and finally earned himself some much-needed breathing room. With the NASCAR world going berserk over Elliott’s resurgence, racing icon Kevin Harvick has underlined the pressure that he has been in over the last few years.
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Talking on the “Harvick Happy Hour” podcast, the former Stewart-Haas Racing driver expressed how issues like the snowboarding accident, the race suspension, and the inability to adjust to Next Gen car ought to have weighed heavily on Elliott’s mind. He admired Elliott’s loyalty to stick with his crew in this tough phase and continued breaking open what he thought was the driver’s most striking issue.
“There’s a circle of life that goes through being successful in this sport,” he said. “If you want to be successful, you have to have your stuff together with your team, your stuff together with your personal life, and your stuff together with your finances. (…) I think everything has been unbalanced for Chase over the last couple of years because of all the other things outside of racing.”
He concluded hoping that Elliott and the #9 Hendrick Motorsports team will be able to hold on to this newfound momentum. Elliott’s terrible low without a victory spanned a period of 18 months and cast NASCAR’s biggest fanbase into a gloom. Several icons, including Harvick, concede that the Texas win was crucial for not only Elliott but for the sport as well.
Chase Elliott on the unparalleled loyalty within the #9 Hendrick Motorsports crew
Winning a race fixes most of the issues a driver has. But for Elliott, the process that his crew went through to find success is what means the most. The #9 Hendrick Motorsports team is a group that seldom experienced a bad performance before the 2022. With all the obstacles that came its way since, it had to get back to the drawing board and start all over again.
Now that the efforts have begun showing results, Elliott couldn’t be more pleased with his comrades. “I think that the win’s great, all that stuff is fantastic, but I’m truthfully most proud of the journey and the group of people that we have climbed back up together with,” he said. “We’ve made each other better. They push me to be a better driver and a better person.”
The crew’s next challenge will be at the Talladega Superspeedway, where they’ll hope to secure back-to-back victories.
