AVONDALE, Ariz. — Donning a hoodie and jeans, Chase Elliott entered the media center following Friday’s 50-minute Cup Series practice session at Phoenix Raceway insouciant about how the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet fired off the hauler.
Despite putting down the seventh-quickest lap around the 1-mile oval, the 2020 Cup champion trudged through discussing how his car felt and how Sunday’s race would play out (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Instead, Elliott deferred to opening up about where his mindset is early into the 2024 season versus the end of 2023.
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Elliott crossed the finish line of last season 16th at Phoenix and 17th in points after missing the postseason for the first time in his career. While 2023 involved recovery from a fractured leg around this time last year, the numbers were still so-so for the perennial title contender.
Elliott’s best finish in the final four races of 2023 was 15th. After the sun gave way to desert twilight, signaling the end of the 2023 season, Elliott had already started thinking about 2024.
“At that point, obviously, our season was all been over and we were just trying to think about this year, or at least I was, you know and just trying to think about what I could do to drive the car in a better way that suits the way it wants to be driven,” Elliott said. “I wasn’t necessarily spent. Yeah, I was frustrated at different times. But I mean, I could be frustrated today and you wouldn’t know it so it’s some days I might show a little more than others.
“But it’s not because I don’t want to be here. It’s not because I don’t want to do good. In fact, it’s really the exact opposite. It’s because I do want to do well and it’s because I do care. And you know you can take that for whatever you want, but I, I just want to be good at my job.”
Elliott’s casual demeanor slowly turned into one of reminiscing and what drives him to compete.
It’s been 37 races since Elliott’s last trip to Victory Lane at Talladega in the fall of 2022. Any driver wants to get back to winning as soon as possible but as Elliott shares that sentiment, he’s taking every stride with purpose no matter how long it may take him to snag his next checkered flag.
“I’m a pretty realistic person and I kind of look at things for what they are probably too much some days,” Elliott said. “But I think that I recognize that things aren’t just going to get better overnight. I have known that for a period of time now and at the end of the day, I don’t know how many steps there are to getting to where you need to go. I think until you encounter that entire journey, I don’t think anyone really knows. But I’m willing to take however many steps it takes to get there and I think that’s the bottom line of the importance of what matters.”
That first step on the journey came last weekend at Las Vegas as the No. 9 team got the first look at what their car can do outside of a superspeedway this season. A 12th-place finish isn’t the standard neither Elliott nor the team wants but it was a massive improvement over a 32nd-place run at Vegas last fall, and it’s the first point of emphasis marked off the checklist to improve over the course of a 36-race calendar.
“That was our first report card, so I think until we’re just running more races, keep chipping away at it,” Elliott said. “Long ways to go, and hopefully, we can just continue to work in areas that we feel need to be worked on and hope that those areas lend results, and I thought they did a little bit last week. Was it good enough? No. Am I satisfied? No. Was it better than last fall? Yes, it sure was. So I think from that, you know, you just have to take little improvements where you can get him especially when you know you have a lot of work to do.”
With a diverse circuit of tracks every season, Elliott said it’s difficult to pinpoint what individual aspect he wants to improve on most to turn a 12th-place run into a top 10 or better. He’s yet to crack the top 10 on the results sheet through three races this season but consistency has found Elliott seventh in the Cup standings, just 23 points behind points leader and Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson.
On his quest for win No. 19 of his Cup career, Elliott has drawn comparison with another professional athlete — Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
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In his current victory drought, Elliott can see similarities in the respective drives and chases to be the top guy in their respective sport. Whether it’s coming up short at the track every Sunday or an annual heartbreaking defeat in the postseason at the hands of three-time Super Bowl champion signal-caller Patrick Mahomes, Elliott understands both sides of being the top guy and falling short.
“I think one fortunate piece of my career as we’ve gone through periods of time and we’ve had a lot of success and we’ve also got also gone through periods of time where we haven’t,” Elliott said. “So I think kind of as we’ve gone down this path of having a tough year last year you kind of look at things a little differently and it kind of makes me think about a Josh Allen, a guy that just can’t quite get over that hump, but we all know he’s really good.
“How does he handle having to play Mahomes in the AFC Championship every year? and at some point, he’s gonna beat him. And you know, I think that journey is pretty cool to watch a guy who’s obviously very talented and can do a really good job and works hard at his craft and seems like a good dude. But he’s just just been that little tick off and I think there’s a lot to be learned and gained from that journey probably more so than just watching people dominate.”
Elliott’s current journey is a unique one where he’s not only trying to beat everyone on track but also playing catchup with his teammates as Larson and William Byron have won 13 races combined since Elliott’s last victory, including two of the first three to kickstart 2024.
Getting back to a standard is much easier said than done but Elliott isn’t rushing to force a result and respects the work and discipline it takes for athletes both in and outside of racing to work to the level they want to find.
“I enjoy watching people and I enjoy watching people work hard to be good at their craft and all that’s different,” Elliott said. I enjoy watching it and I respect it because while I might not know everything about it, I know it’s hard and I think that’s all I need to know. It’s hard, and they’re and they’re really good at what they do.”
“Just work hard, you know, make sure you’re putting the time in and pushing yourself in areas that you know you’re weak. You know, I think a lot of times they’re staring you right in the face and you just got to get to push yourself to get uncomfortable.”