Chase Elliott had a terrible night at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, wrecking and finishing in 38th place.
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About the only good thing was that Elliott was not eliminated from the NASCAR Cup playoffs. Despite some tense moments as the race progressed and concerns about whether he would advance to the Round of 12 quarterfinals, Elliott indeed moved on.
But even with a terrible end of the Round of 16 for Elliott, USA Network analyst Steve Letarte isn’t worried about the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet as he enters the second round this coming Sunday at New Hampshire, sitting in seventh place in the Cup standings.
“We talk all season about how you perform in the regular season, how many points you score, and that’s what happened to Chase Elliott,” Letarte said on the NASCAR Inside The Race post-race show.
“He advanced tonight not because of Bristol, but because of regular-season effort, the playoff points he brought into the playoffs, and the runs he had in the first two races (17th at Darlington and third at Gateway). I mean, that’s the system.”
“He was the driver that I was concerned about, whether they were going to be good enough, because he’s just been consistent, but not crazy fast. You know, he’s the type of driver that’s going to have to be just faster in the next three races to continue,” added Letarte
Could lightning potentially strike again for Elliott this year?
Interestingly, Elliott is somewhat in a similar situation this year as he was in 2020, when he ultimately won his first—and only to date—Cup championship.
Elliott was fifth in the standings upon leaving Bristol in ’20, 46 points behind the then points leader Kevin Harvick, but he roared back with three wins in the final five races of the playoffs—including capturing the finale at Phoenix Raceway to be crowned champion for the season.
After Saturday night’s miserable showing, Elliott—even though he has just one win thus far this season—is still in a decent position heading to the Round of 12, sitting in seventh place, 21 points behind Cup points leader Denny Hamlin.
But Elliott is also facing somewhat of a Catch-22: while he’s still a very reachable 21 points behind Hamlin, he’s also just seven points above the cutoff line for the Round of 8 three races from now heading to New Hampshire.
At the same time, however, two of the three tracks in the Round of 12 play to Elliott’s strength:
- Loudon is the weakest of the three for him, as he has never won there, but does have two top-five and three top-10 finishes in 11 starts.
- Kansas, the middle race in the round, is a decent track performance-wise for Elliott: in 19 starts, he has one win, seven top fives, and 12 top 10 finishes.
- Elliott leaves the best for last in the Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Roval: in seven starts, he has two wins, three top fives, and five top 10 finishes.
“I don’t know if this is a benefit, but I feel like the other Hendrick cars have backed up to (Elliott),” Letarte said. “I always had the 5 [Kyle Larson] and the 24 [William Byron] much faster than [Elliott], but now I think they’re all behind the Toyotas at the moment.”
This is an astute observation from Letarte, as Toyota has won each of the first three playoff races: Chase Briscoe at Darlington, Denny Hamlin at Gateway, and Christopher Bell Saturday night at Bristol.
“So I guess glass half full, the [No.] 9 [has] run the same speed as his teammates. The glass half empty is his teammates aren’t as fast as they need to be. So I don’t know if he caught them or they backed up to him, but either way, they’re all together.”
“That organization is going to work night and day to try to find what they need. So if it is a similar need for all of the three (Team Hendrick) playoff cars left now that Alex Bowman’s been eliminated, maybe that’s the answer for [Elliott],” rounded off Letarte. Whether things go in Elliott’s favor ultimately remains to be seen.
