Since 2022, Chase Elliott has scored 31 more points than anybody else in the NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega Superspeedway.
The 2020 Cup champion — a two-time ‘Dega winner — also has the longest active streak of finishing on the lead lap at the historically treacherous 2.66-mile tri-oval, spanning eight races — most since Ryan Newman accomplished the feat nine times from 2017-2020.
He returns to the famed Alabama track in the midst of yet another Cup Series Playoffs appearance, entering the middle race of the Round of 12, four points above the provisional elimination line before Sunday’s YellaWood 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Informed with such flattering statistics during a Wednesday phone interview with NASCAR.com, his reaction was about what you might expect:
“Thanks. Thanks a lot. Looking forward to crashing now.”
There was a sarcastic laugh tacked onto his gratitude. Can’t imagine why.
MORE: Talladega schedule | Cup Playoffs standings
Even with two Talladega triumphs in his back pocket, Elliott can’t pinpoint any one thing that has led to his success there. In reality, maybe that shouldn’t be so surprising. Pack racing at Talladega largely depends upon those around you rather than a solo effort of carving through the field.
“A lot of it’s just being lucky at different times, or being in the right place at the right time or wherever it may be,” Elliott said. “We’ve been on the fortunate side of the speedway stuff I feel like in general, all the way up ’til Daytona for the summer race, so hopefully we can get some of that back. But yeah, we were certainly due for a bad one. That’s just kind of the way it works.
“We’ll try to put ourselves in positions that we feel are most promising to have a good finish, and outside of that, it’s out my hands, so just try to make the best choices I can based on what’s put in front of me and hope it goes your way.”
From the outside looking in, this stretch of the NASCAR postseason seems to favor the six-time defending most popular driver, with victories at both remaining tracks in the Round of 12 — Talladega and the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course. A revamped and reconfigured road course may alter that, but Elliott maintains confidence in his No. 9 team regardless of what’s next on the calendar.
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That comes with good reason. The No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet maintains the best average finish in the Cup Series at 11.3 after 30 races with one win to its credit (Texas Motor Speedway in April) along with eight top fives and 17 top 10s. Yet it’s felt like a quieter year than usual for the ninth-year veteran. His runner-up effort at Bristol in the Round of 16 finale marked his first top five since a third-place result at Iowa Speedway back in June. Additionally, Elliott has only posted double-digit laps-led totals twice in the 21 races since his Texas win, with 41 led at New Hampshire and 29 at Michigan, his most recent circuits out front.
His Bristol performance, however, was notable, parlaying a 10th-place qualifying effort into a P2 day with 38 points scored, his most since tallying 43 mid-July at Pocono.
“I feel like our pace has been better, really, for more than just the last couple weeks,” Elliott said. “There’s been a lot of high spots in my eyes throughout the year, but, yeah, been kind of quiet I guess in terms of race wins certainly and top fives and and laps led. So we’d love to have more of all that. But, you know, you’ve got to get there in steps. It doesn’t just all happen overnight, and I think we’re doing some of the things that it takes to do that on a consistent basis pretty well.”
Entering Talladega promises nothing for any competitor, with volatile danger looming at any given moment. But for now, Elliott sits on the positive side of the elimination line — if only barely. A ‘Dega win would guarantee his spot in the Round of 8 as one of eight competitors left to vie for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship through Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway and Martinsville Speedway. But that potential victory would even benefit him next week at the Charlotte road course.
“If you’re able to win this weekend, you put yourself in a position to be able to jump stages at the Roval, which massively increases your chance of winning that race, in my opinion,” Elliott explained. “So yeah, I think it’s a little bit of twofold, because you get yourself in a position where, yeah, if you can get lucky and and win this weekend, you have a great opportunity to get more bonus points the following week. So yeah, definitely a great opportunity for us and everybody, for that matter. I’m sure everybody knows that. So yeah, it’s important to have a good week if you can do it.”
MORE: Will Elliott leave ‘Dega as a title front-runner?
Should Elliott charge through the Round of 8 and advance to the Championship 4 for the fourth time in the past five years, he and the No. 9 team will need to be atop the sport’s best at the checkered flag Nov. 10 at Phoenix Raceway to win his second title, bettering the other three teams contending for NASCAR’s greatest glory. But Hendrick Motorsports has not excelled on flatter, shorter ovals recently. Kyle Larson dominated on the 0.533-mile Bristol bullring just two weeks ago, but its high banks offer a stark contrast from tracks like New Hampshire, Richmond or Phoenix.
In a June interview with NASCAR.com, Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon conceded improvements were necessary in advance of Phoenix, particularly after New Hampshire. Larson ran fourth that day, but a failed engine relegated Alex Bowman to last place; Elliott drove only to an 18th-place finish and William Byron was 26th.
“No, I think we have work to do,” Gordon said. “We’re not there right now. You know, I feel like our teams do an amazing job at stepping up and finding what they need to find in that moment. But right now, I think, especially coming off of New Hampshire, we missed it. And it’s a concern for Phoenix as well. I mean, first you have to get there to compete for the championship. But every track that you go to, the way that the cars load the tires and the suspension and the underwing and how you’re using that aerodynamically — it’s dynamic. It changes from corner to corner, changes from track to track.
“And some of them, I think we’ve done really well, and others, we need work. And right now, I would say Phoenix is one of those tracks that we need work or we need to improve.”
In March, Hendrick’s four-car stable was simply outrun at Phoenix. Chevrolets led none of the 312 laps that day, and Larson marked Hendrick’s highest finisher in 14th. William Byron, Elliott and Bowman finished 18th, 19th and 20th respectively. That performance weighs not just on Elliott but the whole of the Hendrick shop.
“The bigger concern in my eye is how bad we all were at Phoenix in the spring,” Elliott said. “You know, that was probably more concerning to me than Loudon (New Hampshire), just because every track kind of has its own deal. But on the same token, I have been through this enough at HMS now where when the company struggles in such a large way across the board — I don’t think any of us were very good there in the spring — there then becomes, not that there’s not already emphasis put on that race because of what it is, but you get even more emphasis put in because of those struggles.
“So while it’s concerning on one hand, I also can look at it as a little bit of a positive, just from the sense of there is no one in that building that wants to go run that bad again, whether it’s the championship race or not. So I can look at that both ways. But we certainly have work to do there, and we’ve been doing a lot of that work throughout the season as we progress through and try to learn things for for that style of track.
“And I do have confidence that when we get there, hopefully, we’re in a position where it matters. And if so, I feel that we’re going to be in a much better position than we were in the spring and most certainly have a shot to win that race.”
