NASCAR Cup champion Elliott hopes to jump-start his racing season at Kansas Speedway

Forgive Chase Elliott if he feels like the odd man out at Hendrick Motorsports.

All three of his teammates— Kyle Larson, William Byron and Alex Bowman — have won NASCAR Cup races this season, while Elliott, the reigning Cup champion, has yet to take a checkered flag through the first 10 events.

But don’t expect Elliott to feel the pressure that goes with defending a championship or winning his first race of the season heading into Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Buschy McBusch Race 400 at Kansas Speedway.

He’s still the composed, confident competitor who just 18 days shy of his 25h birthday became the youngest since Jeff Gordon in 1995 to win a Cup championship in the modern era.

“We’re trying hard; we’re always trying hard; whether we win or finish last, we’re trying hard,” said Elliott, who owns two second-place finishes, in the season-opening Daytona 500 and at Martinsville on April 11. “Martinsville was a really strong fight by our team, honestly. I feel like we passed a lot of cars … we got up there toward the front there at the end, and that is something you can build off.

“We’ve had pace at certain times this year that I feel like was good enough to contend for a win. We’ve also had races where we were really bad and didn’t have pace. But that’s racing and that’s part of it, right? Those tough days and slow races push you to want to be better. We all want to win, but I feel no different today than I did at the end of last year, and the results were just fine then. So, I know we can achieve it. I know we can go out there and accomplish our goals.”

A year ago, Elliott didn’t win until the eighth race of the season at Charlotte. With nine drivers already locked into the playoffs with wins in the first 10 races, Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet, realizes there’s no better time for him to win as now.

‘You have to win early, he said. “We didn’t last year, but I definitely think it helps. That, to me, is the most important thing; really. With the way the points format is, it’s a long regular season to the playoff run. You can have wins in the bank when that starts. It doesn’t guarantee you a shot to Phoenix, but it sure does hedge your bet, and having those points as those rounds reset and go forward, that’s the most important thing. “

Elliott, who sits eighth in the standings, has banked just 1 playoff point compared to Larson’s eight, Byron’s 6 and Bowman’s 5, by virtue of their victories. But Elliott is who his teammates try to emulate. Byron calls Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson “the standard” at Hendrick Motorsports.

“They are kind of the benchmark that we’ve all had to chase,” Byron said. “We’ve got to try to match that standard or try to improve upon it … the way that they execute races, the way Chase drives, and all those things.”

Kansas could be the place Elliott joins his teammates as a 2021 winner. Elliott won the fall race in 2018 that advanced him to the Round of 8 in the playoffs, and Hendrick Motorsports’ seven Cup wins at Kansas Speedway (three each by Gordon and Jimmie Johnson and one by Elliott) are the most by any organization.

“It’s a fun racetrack,” Elliott said of Kansas, where he has four top-six finishes, including a second in 2019, in his last five starts. “It’s one you really move around on and find different lanes and that’s what makes it fun for me, to have different options and being able to run different grooves,” he said.

Elliott’ win at Kansas made him the youngest Cup winner in track history at age 22, a significant accomplishment at a venue where the average age of winners is 35. In fact, only five races have been won by drivers in their 20s in the previous 30 events on the 1.5-mile tri-oval that opened in 2001.

But Elliott, son of Hall of Fame and 1988 Cup champion Bill Elliott, has always been precocious. In 2014, when he won the Xfinity championship at age 20, Elliott was the youngest driver to win any NASCAR national touring title.

And since the 2018 retirement of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Elliott has won the Most Popular Driver Award in the Cup series for the past three years, an honor his father won 16 straight years.

Elliott takes almost as much pride in the popularity contest as the championship he won on the track.

“It’s about being yourself,” said Elliott, who also reigned two years as the most popular driver in the Xfinity series. “An individual can’t make people like them. You can probably make them dislike you pretty easily, but it’s up to the spectators, the people who watch, to like somebody or not.

“I’m not here to try to persuade; I’m just here to be myself. If that brings attention and people enjoy that, then great. If they don’t, that’s also fine, too. There’s a lot of personalities and guys you can pick from. I’m going to be me, and that’s as much as I worry about it.”

Elliott is just as popular in the garages as he is in the grandstands.

“I think he’s a great champion for the sport for a lot of reasons,” Bowman said of his teammate. “It’s been a while since such a popular guy has won the championship, so for him to do that is obviously really popular. People absolutely love that guy. I don’t know what parts or pieces makes somebody so popular, but he definitely is, and it’s really cool to see.”

This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 10:36 AM.