Chase Elliott has self-admittedly struggled to find his pace in the NASCAR Next Gen car. Put together with his injury and suspension woes last season, it took him quite the struggle to find his way back to the victory lane. Despite the common outlook on his performance since 2022, the book of statistics isn’t very hard on him.
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The Hendrick Motorsports star has an average finish rate of 12.45 in the Next Gen era, the best among his competitors. He is also tied for fourth-most wins (6) after last Sunday’s race in Texas. Though the 2023 season proved to be a challenging one for him, he has been on a steady upward path since.
He has 1 win, 3 top fives, and 4 top tens this season, all in the last five races. He currently sits fourth in the points table, a mere 32 points behind the leader. Elliott has finished inside the top five in each of the last three races and looks poised to continue the streak in the Talladega Superspeedway this Sunday.
Drafting style tracks have been among the better race avenues for Elliott. Over 37 starts on superspeedways, 3 wins, 9 top fives, 15 top tens, and 5 pole positions. He will be hoping to use this experience and momentum in what will be his 17th start at the Dega.
Chase Elliott’s past in Talladega makes him a favorite to win on Sunday
Two of Elliott’s 3 victories on superspeedways have come on the Talladega track. It is also one of the four tracks on which he has secured multiple wins. Elliott also has the best average finish there among active drivers (13.63). Notably, he has scored more points (189) in the Next Gen car than any other driver.
Numbers from DraftKings Sportsbook place him amongst the top drivers to win the race with opening odds of 11-1. Breaking the 42-race winless streak in Texas certainly appears to have energized his crowd of fans. Going deeper into the season, his goal is to collect as many wins and points as he can.
He told SpeedFreaks in a recent interview that he wanted to collect as many playoff points as he could before the postseason to be on the safer side. His words of purpose went, “Any playoff points that you can get and stack up can certainly help propel you through the playoffs.”
