One race win puts you in the playoffs but it’s rarely good enough to carry you to the championship race. The importance of winning as many races as possible before the playoffs cannot be overstated and Chase Elliott knows this better than anyone.
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In 2022, he had a brilliant run of performance during the first part of the season. Those points helped him reach the championship race in Phoenix despite having a lackluster run in the playoffs. This season, he hopes for the same as he eyes the regular season championship.
The Hendrick Motorsports star has already won one race and currently sits atop the points table. He has accumulated 134 stage points and will be looking to add to that. Speaking to the media ahead of the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the 2020 Cup Series champion explained the importance of stage points.
Elliott is currently three points ahead of his teammate Kyle Larson in the regular season champion. Winning that title will give him 15 additional playoff points which is the equivalent of three race wins.
“Mathematically, I’m not exactly sure where we would have been, obviously. Judging off the way we ran, we needed to be a lot better and that certainly helped to have some points to lean on because it would have been really, really tough without that. So they can mean a lot,” he told Speedway Digest regarding the 2022 season.
The fight for the regular season championship currently is between Larson and Elliott. Yung Money is not far behind his teammate and there are still a few races before the playoffs begin. It will be interesting to see who wins those valuable 15 points at the end of it.
Hendrick Motorsports’ champions battle for regular season title
Yung Money stated earlier that fighting against one’s teammate for the regular season title is no different than racing for the championship. But as far as Elliott is concerned, there is no friction between the teams. The driver of the #9 car claimed that all HMS teams work well together regardless of the situation they find themselves in.
“I feel like our teams work really well together. All the teammates, drivers, and employees have great communication in meetings and stuff,” he said earlier. But it might not be him or his teammate to earns those 15 points.
While the two HMS stars seem like the front-runners, Larson believes that the rest of the competition cannot be counted out. The likes of Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, and HMS’ William Byron are not too far behind the Cup Series champions. In an earlier media interaction, the 2021 Cup Series champion indicated the possibility of the others winning the regular season instead of him and Elliott.
