MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Chase Elliott is last in the playoff standings heading into Sunday's Round of 8 elimination race. Yet he feels like he is in a really good place even while facing a must-win situation.
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In fact, Elliott seems loose as he tries to punch his ticket back to the Championship 4 for the first time since 2022.
"I just feel good about where we're at," Elliott said Saturday at Martinsville Speedway. "I think we've run really well the last two weeks.
"I thought our team was operating at an extremely high level last weekend across the boards, so it's a great time to be doing that. I think we're all in a really good place. I'm in a good place with everything."
This confident version of Elliott has not been as prevalent during the Next Gen era. Sure, he is a Cup champion who won five races in 2022, but he has also been vocal about struggles on the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team.
This group just didn't have the same level of speed or consistency that it had during the Gen 6 era. It also didn't help that Elliott missed multiple races last season due to an injury sustained in a snowboarding accident.
The situation has changed this season. Elliott has an average finish of 12.1, the best in the Cup Series. He returned to victory lane at Texas Motor Speedway after going winless last season.
He has showcased speed at tracks such as Homestead-Miami Speedway and Vegas Motor Speedway, places where he has previously struggled. Elliott even led 81 laps last weekend in Florida, the second-most among Cup drivers.
"Las Vegas has been horrendous, I mean horrendous, horrendous," Elliott said. "And so has Homestead, for really about two years plus, maybe three years on both of those places.
"So to go and to have the type of speed we've had the last couple of weeks, I think that's great. I think that's something that — while we didn't get the results that we wanted, I think you have to enjoy that because, man, there's been some bad days over the last few years at those tracks in particular."
Elliott and his team have brought fast cars to the track and they've executed throughout the race weekends. Damage from a multi-car incident at Las Vegas kept them from a strong finish, but they showed that they could contend for the win.
The good news for Elliott and the No. 9 team is that they are running as well as they ever have in the Next Gen era. They are peaking at the perfect time.
The bad news is that they can't point their way into the Championship 4. A win is the sole path back to Phoenix.
Of course, this is nothing new for Elliott considering that he won his way into the Championship 4 at Martinsville in 2020. That was the spark that led to his first Cup title.
He just has to do it again.
"Yeah, this is an extremely important weekend," Elliott said. "When I look back at that year, this win was as big as Phoenix because without it, you don't have that shot."
