What’s Happening?

Many felt that the road course at COTA would be a great opportunity for Chase Elliott to get back to his old form, given that he was coming off of his first top-10 of the season at Bristol a week prior. Well, Elliott never led a lap or scored a stage point, and a stage 3 track limits penalty pushed him further back to a 16th-place finish. However, some recent comments from Elliott may give us some insight into what exactly is going on with NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver.

Chase Elliott’s Bizarre 2024 Season

• While Chase Elliott currently sits a respectable 9th in the points standings, his results paint a different picture. He hasn’t won a race since Talladega in the fall of 2022, and he has only one top-10 finish so far in 2024. At COTA, Elliott scored the least points in a race he has all season with 21.
• This trend has gone on since 2023, and his recent appearance on the Dale Jr. Download sheds some light on his perspective on the situation. He blames no one else but himself.
• With Ellott’s status as NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver, his performance is always under the microscope. If he struggles, everyone talks about how much he is struggling.

Since We Last Discussed Elliott

After a pedestrian result at Las Vegas and an overall underwhelming start to the season, we asked the question, is it time for Chase Elliott fans to panic? Well, pretty much every trend we discussed in the article below has continued in the last 3 races.

Is it Time to PANIC for Chase Elliott Fans?

Elliott’s teammates have continued to perform well. William Byron nabbed his second win of the season at COTA. Alex Bowman has two straight top-5 finishes, giving him 3 in the first 6 races. Kyle Larson sits 5th in the points, the highest of all Hendrick drivers, and he had a top-5 at Bristol.

Elliott, meanwhile, had a pedestrian 19th place run at Phoenix before rebounding for an 8th place finish at Bristol, but, he was 3rd out of 4 Hendrick cars at Bristol. Then COTA came, and Elliott failed to score any stage points. He ended up in the top 5 in stage three before getting loose and cutting the course, giving him a pass-through penalty.

The Drivers Most SCREWED Over By Track Limits This Weekend

Even if the COTA penalty was controversial, it came from Elliott making a mistake and getting loose through the esses. If he doesn’t make that mistake, he doesn’t get penalized, simple as that. Even before that, he never led a lap all day long.

While sitting 9th in the points with 6 top-20 finishes in 6 races with 0 DNFs would be a great stat line for lesser race teams, Elliott is a Champion who drives the best equipment in the sport. His teammates are finishing in the top-5 and winning races, and Elliott is struggling to finish in the top-10.

This is even a downward trend from 2023, when Elliott recorded 15 top-10s in 29 starts. Which was a downturn from 2022 when he won 5 races and made the Championship 4. Does Elliott have insight into what happened?

What Did Elliott Have to Say?

On the Dale Jr. Download, Elliott pointed to one specific thing that he feels has caused his recent struggles, the Next-Gen car. While things started off well with Elliott in the Next-Gen car, problems have arisen since.

I think what happened was no one really knew how to drive [the Next-Gen car] at the beginning [of 2022], and I was getting away with how I drove the old car, and it was working to an extent. I don’t think it was proper. It sure didn’t feel proper, but it was better than others at the time. We had a good stretch through the summer, and then it was like early fall, probably just a little before the late summer, early fall right before the playoffs. I feel like everything really switched and people started driving these cars differently, and they started setting them up differently and, really going into a different direction from where we had previously been. I think at that point from that point forward our struggles began right then and there

Chase Elliott

Looking at Elliott’s statistics from 2022, he’s pretty spot on about where the struggles started. After his win at Pocono, Elliott finished the season with 5 top-10s in the final 15 races after 15 top-10s in the first 20 races. After his 5th and final win of the year at Talladega, he never finished better than 10th, and that was the only top-10 finish in the last 5 races. Since he made the Championship 4, no one largely noticed.

Fast-forward to 2023, and, aside from all of the injuries and a suspension, he wasn’t running that well. He did have 15 top-10s in 29 races, but, he failed to win a race.

As a result of all of that, Elliott has been forced to adjust how he drives. He specifically mentioned that this year has been a steep but enjoyable learning curve for him.

You got to be willing to get outside your comfort zone, and I felt like some of those things were recognized there at the end of last year. The final probably couple weeks was me trying to adjust myself and understand that better. This year has just been full-blown me trying to transition into a different realm of driving race cars, and I’ve really enjoyed the challenge because it it has pushed me outside of how I want to do things. I’ve truthfully had a lot of fun with that.

Chase Elliott

While everyone is focusing on areas like Elliott’s health as to why he is struggling, Elliott is looking internally at how he drives. That’s a very commendable quality, and being able to adjust is very important to anyone in any profession. Elliott’s not blaming the car or the equipment, he’s putting it on himself to adjust to the Next-Gen car.

Could we see an improvement as he continues to adjust to the car? Maybe, but, it’s not resulted in good finishes on the track yet.

Elliott is continuing to struggle and lag behind his teammates, but, that doesn’t mean he’s complacent. Still, it’s a results-based business, and the results are not showing as of yet.