It’s easy to wonder what happened for Chase Elliott this past season, but he doesn’t see it that way.
Elliott missed seven races and missed the Cup playoffs for the first time in his career. It was also the first time since 2017 that they were winless in the series.
more: Voting for the most popular driver is underway
“If you miss seven races, your year is ruined,” Elliott said. “I won’t buy that.
“Yes, if I had run in those events I probably would have qualified for the driver (playoffs). I would have gotten used to it.”
Looking back on last season, Elliott said the 2022 Cup Playoffs, which saw them reach the Championship Four, was a foreshadowing of what was to come this season.
“I think the things that I started struggling with last year continued into this year,” Elliott said. “It really mirrors where we left off the season (in 2022) and unfortunately we weren’t able to figure out some of those things and improve on them.”
In the 2022 Cup Playoffs, Elliott won one race and finished second in another, but had seven finishes outside the top 10. He advanced to the title race with the help of playoff points earned during the season.
Elliott has only run two points races so far this season. He was injured in a snowboarding accident He then missed the next six events. After his return, Elliott had three top-10 finishes in the next six races. After wrecking Denny Hamlin, NASCAR suspends him from racing Around the time of Coca-Cola 600.
Elliott has recorded three consecutive top-five finishes since his return. That led to talk about how they could make the playoffs on points despite missing all the races. Elliott always needed to win, he insisted. That turned out to be true.
“It certainly wasn’t what I expected for myself and what we expected from the team,” he said on the final weekend of the season. “There’s a lot of room for improvement and we’re going to do a lot of things for next year.”
Elliott’s season has been both good and bad.
More than half of his finishes were top-10 results. But he led just 195 laps this year, the fewest laps of any Cup season. He has eight straight races and six top-10 finishes, including the opening three playoff races. However, he had only two stage wins all season.
Highlights: NASCAR Cup Phoenix Championship Race
Check out highlights from the NASCAR Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway.
He admitted that even if he won his second championship this year, let alone had a season like the one he had, he would be focused on improving.
“I always want to get better,” the 2020 Cup champion said. “I think we learned a lot about ourselves and what we need to do better for ourselves. I learned a lot about myself, but I only learned the areas I wanted to improve. It’s gone.”
When asked how he would rate his season, Elliott replied: So, at the end of the day, I’m not happy with it. It doesn’t really matter where you land on the scale. I want to be better. As I’ve said, I have a really strong team and I feel like they work really hard every week to give me what I want and need. That’s really all I can ask for.
“I want to continue on that path and continue to work as hard as I have. Hard work and the resilience to never give up will ultimately take us to our destination.” I think you will.”
And what did he learn this season?
“There were a lot of lessons learned,” he said. “I think a lot about cars and what I think I want and need to feel in a car every week, so it’s really just car-related and I’ve digested most of it. It’s like being there.”
When asked if he was surprised he didn’t win this year, Elliott answered simply.
“No,” he said. “Things are tough. If you’re not on your game, you can’t win. We’re not on our game.”