Elliott on a hot streak, eyeing crown
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 last three races, and three of the last 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.”