Elliott’s confidence drives his success
Hendrick star has two wins in past three races
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, N.Y., 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 previous 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 was 18 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 record 16time 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?
Elliott did win the pole for his Daytona 500 debut, but he finished 37th. His rookie season netted five finishes of second or third, a 10th-place finish in the standings and no wins.
Year 2 was like a bad repeat. The pole again at Daytona and nothing to show for that effort. Even worse? Five runner-up finishes and almost certain victory snatched away at Martinsville Speedway. Elliott was leading late in the race at the Virginia track with only a few laps remaining before what would have been both his first victory and an automatic spot in the championship finale.
Elliott was instead wrecked by Denny Hamlin. He didn’t win, didn’t advance to the final four and two weeks later at Phoenix retaliated to ensure Hamlin wouldn’t race for the title, either. Last year’s miss still is emotional for Elliott and his team as NASCAR heads back to Martinsville Sunday for the opening race of the third round of the playoffs. Four drivers will race for the title next month in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and Elliott believes he can be one of them.
Elliott’s two playoff victories lead the Cup Series and have pushed him to fourth in the standings, behind Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. The “Big Three” are all expected to make it to Homestead — although it is not guaranteed — and Elliott wants to edge Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Aric Almirola and Kurt Busch from claiming the fourth spot.
“I think we have just as good a shot as anybody and that’s our approach these next three weeks,” Elliott said. “I think my team in particular does a great job of just really paying attention to every detail they can, especially at this time of year.”
INDYCAR
Driver Robert Wickens is paralyzed from the waist down from injuries suffered in an August crash at Pocono Raceway.
Wickens, 29, has been updating his rehabilitation progress on social media and posted a video Thursday of his “first slide transfer as a paraplegic” that showed him moving from a table to his wheelchair. His videos had shown for the past month that he is working daily to move his legs again, but his post Thursday was the first time he publicly confirmed his paralysis.
“I’ve only been posting videos of the small movement in my legs, but the reality is I am far away from walking on my own,” Wickens wrote. “Some people are a bit confused with the severity of my injury, so I wanted let you know the reality of it. I’ve never worked harder for anything in my life, and I am giving it all I’ve got to spark those nerves in my legs.”
Wickens recently left an Indianapolis rehabilitation facility for one in Colorado.
The Canadian crashed at Pocono Aug. 19 and suffered a thoracic spinal fracture, spinal cord injury, neck fracture, tibia and fibula fractures to both legs, fractures in both hands, fractured right forearm, fractured elbow, four fractured ribs and a pulmonary contusion. Earlier Thursday, three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart said he is reconsidering a return to the Indianapolis 500 because of Wickens’ crash.