A midrace crash at Las Vegas relegated Chase Elliott to a 33rd-place finish, leaving him 53 points behind the cutline for the NASCAR championship grid.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott faces a tall task in the next two races as he hopes to contend for the NASCAR Cup Series title.
Elliott is eighth in the NASCAR playoff standings, 53 points behind fourth-place William Byron. Only the top four drivers in the standings are eligible to compete for the series title in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway.
The large deficit was created by a 33rd-place finish at Las Vegas on Sunday. Elliott was involved in a crash with Martin Truex Jr. that ended his day early and started his Round of 8 in horrific fashion.
With Las Vegas behind him, Elliott’s team is essentially in must-win territory at the two remaining races in the round.
The Cup Series visits Homestead-Miami and Martinsville on its next two stops. Elliott has never won at Homestead but has the second-best average finish among active drivers at the track. He’s won one time at Martinsville.
The pressure doesn’t phase Elliott, who has been in must-win mode since the round began last week.
“We have to win. Nothing changes for me,” Elliott said in a media appearance on Wednesday. “We have to win one of the next two. That was our thought process going into Vegas.”
Elliott has finished 15th or better in his eight Homestead starts. He says he enjoys the track for its unique features.
“From a driver’s standpoint, [Homestead] is always a lot of fun,” Elliott said. “It presents challenges that you don’t see on a weekly basis with the progressive banking and both ends of the racetrack drive kind of differently.”
Joey Logano smashed the playoff grid with a fuel strategy that landed him in victory lane at Las Vegas. Logano was only in the Round of 8 because Alex Bowman’s car was disqualified after the Charlotte Roval race. The Team Penske driver has performed at a lower level than the other seven playoff drivers but now has an automatic spot in the championship field with his victory.
The playoff format has faced scrutiny in the days since Logano’s win. NASCAR, unlike other sports, still has a full field of competitors in each race along with the playoff drivers.
Elliott says he is not upset about Logano’s realistic chance to win the championship this season.
“It’s not Joey’s fault that the format is what it is,” Elliott said. “They took a chance and it worked out for him… I don’t necessarily love the format personally. I certainly benefited from a good streak in 2020 that carried us through Phoenix and I’m proud of that for sure.”
Elliott won the title in 2020 with the fifth-best average finish (11.7), third-most wins (5), and third-most top 5s (15). He won the season’s penultimate race at Martinsville before winning the championship race at Phoenix.
Meanwhile this year, Logano is 15th in average finish (17.5), tied for 11th in top 5s (6), and 14th in top 10s (11). He is well behind the pace of Elliott’s 2020 title year or any other previous NASCAR champions’ seasons.
“It’s a different time nowadays and this is the format that you have to work with and [Logano] capitalized on it,” Elliott said.
Each of the three times Elliott has been on the championship grid in the season finale, he has had a solid Round of 8 with no major setbacks. The last time Elliot was in a similar position to the one he is in now was in 2019 when three finishes of 32nd or worse ended his title hopes.
Elliott was in must-win territory heading into the Round of 8 finale at Phoenix in 2017. He battled for his first career win with Matt Kenseth but ultimately finished second, 25 points behind a championship spot.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver ended a 42-race winless streak with a victory at Texas in April. It’s the only win Elliott has this year but his 12.3 average finish is the best in the Cup Series field this season.
