Elliott looks to end winless streak
TALLADEGA, Ala. — It’s been a year since Chase Elliott won a Cup Series race, a drought that played a role in NASCAR’s most popular driver missing the playoffs in what’s guaranteed to be the worst season of his career.
As Elliott returns for Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway, site of his last victory, there’s no sugarcoating his season.
“I am disappointed in his season, for sure,” team owner Rick Hendrick told The Associated Press. “I think Chase is an unbelievable talent, the most popular driver, under a lot of pressure from the fans, not as much from the sponsors — they want to win. I feel like he deserves to win races, he’s got the talent. So we’ve just got to get him in that position.”
It fell apart for Elliott before the third race of the season when he broke his leg in a snowboarding accident in Colorado ahead of the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Elliott missed six races to put him in an enormous hole, and then he was suspended for a seventh for intentionally wrecking Denny Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600 in May.
He spent the rest of the regular season desperately trying to win a race to avoid missing out on the playoffs for the first time in his career. Elliott failed to qualify — his 35-race winless streak dates to last fall’s Talladega race — and a career-worst 17th is the best he can finish in the final Cup standings. The 2020 champion never has finished lower than 10th and made it to the title-deciding finale the last three years.
Hendrick has given Elliott a directive to win a race before the end of the season to carry momentum into 2024.
“I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed for him. I’m disappointed for his sponsors,” Hendrick told the AP. “But at the same time, I’ve told him: ‘Look, we’re in this for the long haul. I hope you are going to retire here. And we’re going to win championships and races. And this was something that set us back.’
“But you know, I can’t tell the guys they can’t have a life on a snowboard, and (s—-) happens.”
While not eligible for the driver championship, Elliott can still win an owner’s title for Hendrick Motorsports, which last week celebrated its 300th Cup win when William Byron won at Texas to become the first driver to advance into the round of eight of the playoffs.
Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet goes into Sunday’s race ranked ninth, two points behind Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson and one point ahead of Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing. Just like in the drivers’ playoffs, eight cars advance to the next round of the owners’ championship.
Elliott finds the intensity the same, even though he’s not racing for a second Cup title.
“Nothing really feels any different, which is kind of odd,” Elliott said. “It feels like just another playoff year really.”
QUALIFYING
Aric Almirola gave Stewart-Haas Racing a much-needed boost as Ford drivers swept the top three spots and seven of the top 10 in qualifying.
Almirola earned the sixth pole of his career with a lap of 181.656 mph in Saturday’s qualifying session. SHR only qualified Kevin Harvick for this year’s playoffs and Harvick, who is retiring at the end of the season, was eliminated at the end of the first round.
It has left SHR fighting only for its first Cup win of the season for the four-car organization over the final six races of the season. SHR came to Talladega with “Talladega Nights” paint schemes on the cars of Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece, who have been in full character all week promoting the sponsorship.
Briscoe qualified third, one spot behind reigning Cup champion Joey Logano of Team Penske. Logano was eliminated from the playoff field at the end of the first round.
Larson was the highestqualifying playoff driver at fourth.