“Really Bad Look for Him”: “Overrated Superstar” Chase Elliott Called Out by NASCAR Fans Over Long Winless Run

Neha Dwivedi | 26/04/2025
Hendrick Cars driver Chase Elliott on pit road during the Great Clips 200 at Darlington Raceway.

Hendrick Motorsports is setting the pace this season, with three of its four drivers sitting inside the top five in the points standings after nine races. William Byron leads the field with 346 points, while Kyle Larson holds fourth, and Chase Elliott rounds out fifth. Despite this strong showing, fans recently turned their attention toward Elliott, seeing him as the weak link among HMS’s roster, despite the fact that even Alex Bowman has not performed as expected and stands at P10.

While Byron and Larson have already visited victory lane — Byron once and Larson twice — Elliott has yet to notch a win this season and has posted only two top-five finishes. Last season, Elliott managed just a single win at Texas Motor Speedway after going winless throughout 2023, ultimately finishing P7 in the standings.

With that, currently, he sits at P8 on the list of longest active winless streaks with 36 races since his last victory. Meanwhile, Justin Haley tops the list with a drought of 150 races, followed by Cole Custer at 106, Bubba Wallace at 88, and Kyle Busch rounding out the top five with 66 winless starts.

But fans did not hold back in their criticism of Elliott. One remarked, “Elliott being on this list while driving for HMS is a really bad look for him, man. Never would’ve thought this back in ’22.”

Another labeled Elliott as overrated, claiming, “Chase Might be the most overrated superstar in nascar history.”

Some took it a step further, predicting trouble ahead for the #9 driver’s future with Hendrick Motorsports: “The 9 won’t get extended next contract with HMS if they don’t win at least 3 or 4 races, too many talented younglings coming up .”

Another enthusiast delivered a harsher verdict, stating, “Chase Elliott is Done. Big head entitled attitude with lower quality skills has ended his winning.”

Is Chase Elliott really better than Alex Bowman?

As per an analysis revealed in December 2024, Alex Bowman finished as Hendrick Motorsports’ highest-placed driver in six races, while Chase Elliott managed to do so only four times, last season.

Both drivers won once and ended the season inside the top 10 in the driver standings. This statistic fueled the theory that Bowman may have been more valuable to the Hendrick Motorsports team than Elliott over the past season.

Although Elliott continues to hold the NMPA’s Most Popular Driver Award for a seventh straight year, his performance has been on a noticeable dip.

In 2022, the first year of the Next Gen car, Elliott scored five wins. Since then, however, he has tallied just one victory across two seasons, while William Byron has collected 10 wins and Kyle Larson has racked up 12, both dominating while running with the same equipment.

Post Edited By: Srijan Mandal
Alex Bowman Chase Elliott Kyle Larson William Byron

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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