Chase Elliott on a hot streak and eyeing series title

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Chase Elliott first had to figure out how to stop losing races before he could find his way to victory lane.

It took probably a dozen defeats in NASCAR’s Cup Series before Elliott stepped up on the road course at Watkins Glen to finally close out his first win. That August victory locked him into the playoffs, and he bookended the second round of the championship chase with victories at Dover and Kansas.

Now Elliott is on to the third round of the playoffs — winner of two of the past three races, and three of the past 11 dating to his Watkins Glen breakthrough — and is perhaps a legitimate title contender. Once that first victory was out of the way, Elliott switched into another gear knowing he could win at the highest level.

Crew chief Alan Gustafson likened it to a change in mental approach that all athletes face.

“I always feel like when you’re in a situation, whatever it is, if you’re shooting a foul shot, hitting a golf shot, racing a car, when you come up to the foul line, is your mind saying to yourself, ‘ I’m going to make it?’ Or ‘I’m going to miss it?’ That psychology is a huge part of success,” Gustafson said.

“As you get confidence and wins, you make foul shots, when you get to the line you know you’re going to make them. I don’t feel like his personality has changed, but I think now when he looks at that opportunity, he is looking at it more like ‘Yes, I can do this’ instead of the 100 things that can go wrong.”

And plenty of things went wrong for Elliott after he won the Xfinity Series championship in 2014, when he was18 and finally eligible to run a full NASCAR season. Plans were formed in 2015 for his move to the big leagues with Hendrick Motorsports as the replacement for retiring four-time champion Jeff Gordon. Elliott was in the seat not long after his 20th birthday.

He is the son of Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, NASCAR’s 1988 champion and a record16-time winner of the most popular driver award. Chase Elliott entered NASCAR with a built-in fan base that wants him to match the success of his father. Because he’s with Hendrick, in Gordon’s old ride, the wins should have been immediate, right?

It wasn’t. The first two years were washouts, then came last year’s miss. But now he’s in the hunt. Martinsville (Va.) Speedway Sunday, 2:30 p.m. TV: NBC Sports Network