Chase Elliott Under Scrutiny as NASCAR Insider Launches Critical Assessment
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott's recent performance has come under the scrutiny of NASCAR insider Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic.
Elliott made history by winning the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship as the first rookie and the youngest driver to clinch the title. After moving to the Cup Series with a full-time seat in 2016, Elliott continued to impress and secured his first Cup Series championship at 24 years old in 2020.
In his Cup Series career so far, Elliott has won 19 races in 322 starts. However, some argue that his recent performances, although consistent, are not showing the dominance he previously enjoyed in his championship-winning season.
During the latest episode of The Teardown podcast (below), Bianchi stated:
Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, waits on the grid during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Würth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on May 03, 2025 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, waits on the grid during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Würth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on May 03, 2025 in Fort Worth, Texas."We need to have a Chase Elliott conversation.
"Since the start of the 2023 season, the Wood Brothers have more wins than Chase Elliott does. That's crazy to think about. That's no disrespect to the Wood Brothers, that's just the reality of the situation.
"They have two wins. Chase Elliott has one points win since the start of the 2023 season. That's crazy to think about. This is again becoming a typical, what I would associate with a typical Chase Elliott year. They run just well enough.
"You look at their average finish, you know, that kind of thing, and they grind out these finishes, and that's good, and it keeps them up in the point standings. He's fourth in points.
"Okay, that's good, but that's not good enough for this team. You look at laps-led this year, Kyle Larson and William Byron are first and second. Alex Bowman is ninth. Chase Elliott, 15th. 45 laps-led this year. This team should be better. It needs to be better."
Commenting on the race at Texas Motor Speedway, in which Elliott finished in 16th, Bianchi continued:
"On a race track where this is tailor-made for Hendrick Motorsports. We saw that today with the No. 5. Obviously, the No. 24 was up there too, until they had pit road damage. Bowman was in the mix. Elliot, they needed a tire gamble to get that track position. It wasn't like they had sheer speed. There's just, fundamentally, something is missing with this team. It's been missing for a while. Kudos to them for grinding it out and finding a way week after week to get top 10s, and that kind of thing.
"Led the series in average finish last year, and that's great, but they are not winning enough. They're not leading enough laps. They're not getting stage wins enough. This team is falling short of the expectations. Now, that's a real high bar, but they're not even close to meeting that."
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