With just two races left before the start of the NASCAR Cup playoffs, a 36th-place finish at Daytona last week was not what Chase Elliott had in mind in building momentum for a run at a Cup series championship.
It was his worst finish of the 2024 season.
Fortunately for the Dawsonville native, it did not put too much of a damper on Elliott’s prospects of capturing a second Cup title. He still sits third overall behind Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson entering Sunday’s regular-season finale at Darlington.
“That wasn’t what we wanted or had in mind for sure, but overall, we’ve had a solid year,” Elliott said Tuesday during a Zoom call with Atlanta Motor Speedway. “We’re trying to get ready for the playoffs.”
Another thing Elliott is just happy to be a part of this season after missing out during a tumultuous 2023 campaign. He qualified for the postseason with his win at Texas on April 14, but he has added another six top-5 finishes and 11 more top-10 finishes to go with his one trip to Victory Lane.
“It’s good just to have the opportunity to get back in the playoffs,” he said. “It’s been a different vibe this year for sure. Despite last week, I feel like we’ve been competitive in every race.”
And even though the regular season wraps up in Darlington, most of the questions by the media on the call focused on the playoffs starting on Sept. 8 at Elliott’s home track -- Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Elliott has just one career win at AMS, which came on July 10, 2022. He led 96 laps after starting on the pole in that race. Most recently, he finished 15th in the February race this season.
But with AMS similar in design to Daytona and the high stakes of the playoffs involved, Elliott sees a similar type of race and similar approaches by the drivers.
He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
“In relation to the Supers, Daytona is not as wide as Tallegeda, which is why you see more bunching of the cars and more wrecks. AMS is narrow like Daytona,” he said. “I’ll think you’ll see everyone be a little more aggressive on the Supers, especially in the playoffs and especially at AMS.”
But Elliott said he didn’t feel any extra pressure coming home to AMS to start the postseason than on any other race weekend. And their team’s approach won’t change much from their usual routines.
“I feel pressure every week to get the job done and try to win the race,” he said. “It’s really not any different when we race at AMS. But it does mean a little more, for sure.
“If you’ve been competitive and continue to do those things, it doesn’t matter much. The only things that have changed the last few years is that everyone is being smarter with the Stage points. Those are extremely valuable during the (playoff) round. It’s like a chess match now with those.”
Barring another bad finish at Darlington, Elliott will begin his Cup quest on solid footing and in great position. He said they are only focused on taking the next 11 weeks one at a time.
“It would be great to win another Cup (championship), but anything can happen,” he said. “You just hope you can get hot over the final month. If you can do that, you have a chance for sure.”
