As Chase Elliott continues to look for his first win of the season and a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, the season goes to New Hampshire. Loudon awaits this weekend and the short-track racing is going to be exciting. Elliott will try to use his stellar average starting position to help him get in position to snag a victory.
Over the course of his Cup Series career, Chase Elliott has nine races at New Hampshire. Throughout his career, he has started in the top-10 at the track six of those times. In his last three races at NHMS, Elliott has started P3, P3, and P2.
It isn’t just that Elliott leads all active drivers in average starting position. The Hendrick Motorsports driver leads ALL NASCAR drivers ever. With an average start of P8, it is surprising that Elliott doesn’t have a win at this track.
However, that could all change as Elliott focuses on this weekend. Just a year ago, he started and finished P2 in the race. It was Christopher Bell that took the win in 2022. It will be very tough to beat the Toyotas who have been so great at this track over the last five years or more.
While Chase Elliott has a solid starting position, his finishing position leaves something to be desired. An average finish of 14.667 and an average running position of 10.388. So, there is still some work for Elliott to do, but it feels like he could be on the verge of a breakthrough at New Hampshire.
Chase Elliott needs to avoid finishes like Atlanta
Coming into last week’s race, it felt like Chase Elliott was going to be involved in the Quaker State 400. He was the winner last year in the race after a dominant performance. However, things just did not line up the same in 2023.
In fact, Elliott wasn’t a factor in the entire race. While it was shortened due to rain, the point still stands. 185 laps around the Atlanta track and Elliott was really nowhere to be found. In the end, he was able to salvage a P13 finish. It was not the performance the 9 team or its fans wanted to see in Georgia.
Prior to the Atlanta race, Elliott had three top-5 finishes in a row. He needs to get back on track with finishes like those. There is a narrow window for Elliott to make the playoffs on points, but a win would erase all doubt.
As Chase Elliott prepares for the Crayon 301 at New Hampshire, he should have confidence in his qualifying session. Still, there needs to be something that tells us Elliott has what it takes to win a race this year.