Elliott Hopes Experience Improves Sunday Pocono Outcome

Chase Elliott (Peter Casey/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

LONG POND, Pa. – Even after winning a championship at NASCAR’s highest level, Cup Series star Chase Elliott knows there is always room for self-reflection and improvement.

This weekend at Pennsylvania's Pocono Raceway, Elliott is looking to use his experiences from Saturday’s Xfinity Series race to help him get closer to finding victory lane on the Cup Series side in Sunday’s Great American Getaway 400.

Elliott will start Sunday’s race mid-pack in 18th, but after qualifying on pole in the Xfinity race and finishing fourth on Saturday, that is momentum he’ll look to carry over.

“We would like to take some positive things that we had a year ago here into this weekend. That would be great,” said Elliott, who finished ninth at Pocono in last year’s Cup Series race. “We will just keep chipping away, and I thought we were doing some good things last time, so we just have to do some of the things we are doing well and add some more to it.”

With his last win coming at Texas Motor Speedway in April of last year, Elliott called his season through 16 weeks good but not great, stating the only reason it’s a positive is based on pure consistency.

“I would say it has been good. But it’s not where I want to be, no doubt. I think for us there have been some high spots and to be honest, there have been weeks where we have run well where we have had a good finish, and there have been weeks where we have not,” said Elliott.

“Some days I can go home and be like, ‘Man, we were in the mix, and we had good pace today.’ And those are the weeks where you just want to feel like you are in the ball game as it pertains to pace, doing the right things, and getting up in there and giving yourself a shot,” he added.

However, the Dawsonville, Ga., native did acknowledge that frustration builds when there are weekends where the No. 9 team isn’t relevant due to performance.

“We have had more of those than we would want to have as a team. So, I think our season has been good, but not satisfactory for myself or to our team. But there is still a lot of racing left in the season and I think we have ourselves in a position to make a mediocre day alright.

“We can build from it, and we still have a chance to win.”

Despite being empty in terms of wins, the 29-year-old has four top fives and eight top 10s with an average finish of 11th place. He is currently on pace for his best average finish of his Cup Series career and sits fourth overall in the point standings.

But, when you are NASCAR’s most popular driver, carry a strong family legacy, are a Cup Series and Xfinity Series champion at Hendrick Motorsports, you are compared by wins and titles to your counterparts.

This year William Byron and Kyle Larson have found victory lane, and sit first and second in the standings, something Elliott is looking to build toward.

When asked if he feels he needs to do more to achieve the greater goal of winning and catching his teammates for the regular season championship, Elliott said there’s a little bit of everything that goes into that pursuit.

“I think there are a lot of things that go into that. But I think probably the biggest one is qualifying. Qualifying is so important and an area that I have struggled in. So, when I look at some of the races like Michigan two weeks ago, we got ourselves up front and when that happened, I thought we were super competitive,” he said.

Elliott started Michigan Int’l Speedway’s race in 17th and fluctuated throughout the day ending up 15th. But he did lead 19 laps in that race.

“It was like night and day from running around 10th to 20th and starting to run in traffic, it can just really dictate what your car drives like,” he added. “I think being up front, having a really good pit stall, keeping yourself up there, it can change the complexion of your day in such a large way that it cannot really be overlooked.

“That would be really top of mind for me as I look at what is one thing that we can do to help ourselves, and I think that is probably it.”

At Pocono on Sunday, track position is something the No. 9 team will have to overcome, as he’ll start 18th. Granted, Elliott’s teammate Byron spun in the middle of his initial qualifying lap, forcing the team to start from the back of the field, but this is his 10th time this season starting a race 15th or worse. He also hasn’t qualified inside the top ten since Kansas Speedway back in May.

But the mentality doesn’t change: all the consistency and solid performance around is necessary to build toward winning. In his Cup career at Pocono, Elliott has four top fives and a 2022 win at the ‘Tricky Triangle’.

With 10 races left until the postseason, Elliott is in a good position points-wise, but with wild card winners like Shane van Gisbergen at Mexico City last week, any worrying goes away with a win.

“The consistency has been good, but this deal really rewards winning. It’s way more important to win and to get those playoff points than to have to wait till the end of the regular season and depend on where you finish in the points,” he said. “So, you need to have some wins.

“I think our team has done a really good job taking some of those days where we were not having a good day, and digging in, and finding a way to just get something halfway decent out of it. I am really proud of them for that.”

With a rain delay slowing down the proceedings, Cup Series action from Pocono is hopeful of starting Sunday at 4:30 p.m. ET, live on Prime Video, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.