Kyle Petty Not Impressed By “Mediocre Consistent” Chase Elliott Leading NASCAR Standings: “He’s Not My Guy”

At Dover, Denny Hamlin became the first driver this season to bag four wins, yet it was Chase Elliott who climbed to the top of the driver standings despite scoring just one win from 21 regular-season starts. Elliott’s rise to the summit has been fueled by his consistency, with a season-long average finish of P10 and a steady accumulation of points. However, Kyle Petty has brushed aside that stat, arguing that leading the standings alone doesn’t make Elliott the best on track.

Elliott currently has 702 points, seven top-five finishes, and twelve top-10s. He has finished inside the top 20 in all 21 races. And yet, Petty doesn’t see that as a significant accomplishment.

Appearing on GoPRNLive’s Fast Talk, Petty didn’t mince words before saying: “I’m tired of it. I don’t give a rat’s rear end that he’s (Elliott) the only guy that’s finished in the top-20 every race this year. Top-20 is not a stat, dude. It’s top-10, top-five, [and] wins. That’s what we go after. So I don’t want to hear that one anymore. But what that does tell me is he’s just been consistent.”

If that wasn’t already clear, Petty doubled down on the fact that this is not the ideal kind of consistency. “He’s (Elliott) been incredibly consistent. Mostly mediocre consistent, which has led him to lead the championship,” he added.

“And that’s all you can say about it, is [that] he has run in the top-five or top-10, and run in the top-15 or so, but he’s just there. He’s vanilla. He’s right there in the middle. He’s not done anything special to lead the points.”

Petty also pointed to Hamlin’s four wins, Shane van Gisbergen’s three, and other front-running heroics as the real markers of excellence, likening Elliott’s approach to the race between “the tortoise and the hare,” where the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports driver is the former.

While Petty admitted Elliott’s consistency benefits the sport and his fan base, he made it clear he values drivers who dominate races rather than those who simply finish near the front. “He’s not my guy. So I’m sorry. That’s my critique on him leading the points at this time,” Petty concluded.

While crediting Elliott’s consistency, Petty emphasized that the driver needs to step up with standout performances to truly deserve his place at the top of the standings.

About the author

Neha Dwivedi

Neha Dwivedi is an experienced NASCAR Journalist at The SportsRush, having penned over 5500 articles on the sport to date. She was a seasoned writer long before she got into the world of NASCAR. Although she loves to see Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch win the races, she equally supports the emerging talents in the CARS Late Model and ARCA Menards Series.. For her work in NASCAR she has earned accolades from journalists like Susan Wade of The Athletic, as well as NASCAR drivers including Thad Moffit and Corey Lajoie. Her favorite moment from NASCAR was witnessing Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. win the championship trophies. Outside the racetrack world, Neha immerses herself in the literary world, exploring both fiction and non-fiction.

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