Even though Chase Elliott failed to make it to the Championship 4, his 2025 Cup Series season was promising. He reached the Round of 8, which is a very impressive feat in itself. Of course, the predominant feeling is that he can do much better.
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Former driver Kyle Petty spoke about Elliott, explaining what he has been missing lately. Petty had some suggestions for the driver to regain his mojo.
“I go back to when he won the championship. I go back to when he won all the road courses and everything,” Petty began on NASCAR: Inside the Race.
“There was a spark to him. There was something there. Something intangible. A little dazzle. You couldn’t put your finger on it, but there was something special,” he added.
Petty then detailed that the way he walked in the garage and his entire attitude on the race track were significantly unique back then. He firmly believes that Spark needs to come back if Elliott is to go back to the top dog status that he once enjoyed.
That said, the 2025 season was a big step up for Elliott after two largely average seasons in which he struggled to find wins. He secured two wins and marked a strong turnaround in form.
On Sunday at Martinsville, Elliott finished in third place. However, the result just wasn’t enough to put him in the Championship 4 as he stayed 62 points below the cutoff line.
Petty asserted that what Elliott lacked wasn’t skill or talent. “I think he’s got to find, just as Steve said, what’s that line of getting in the corner? What’s that line of letting it roll, trailing the brake, getting in the corner, putting enough wheel in it, whatever that may be,” added Petty.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver is still learning to adapt to his car and understand its character. Once he does this, Petty believes, Elliott’s performances will move up a great deal.
For his part, Elliott showered praise on his No. 9 crew after Sunday’s race in Martinsville for the effort they put in. He took pride in the positive results that he secured lately and wished for one of his teammates, William Byron or Kyle Larson, to win the championship for Hendrick Motorsports.
