RECAPPING THE ATL: At his home track of Atlanta Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott started 23rd in Sunday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race. He worked his way inside the top 20 in the first stage, finishing 18th. The Dawsonville, Georgia, native followed that up with a 12th-place result in stage two after battling inside the top 10. Elliott was running in the 13th position in the final stage when weather enveloped the track while the race was under caution. Officials were ultimately forced to call the race with just 185 of the scheduled 260 laps completed, ending Elliott’s chances of defending his race-winning performance at the track last season.
READY FOR SOME MAGIC: This weekend, the Cup Series heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway. In nine starts at the track in NASCAR’s premier series, Elliott has two top-five finishes and three top-10s. In his most recent performance at “The Magic Mile,” the 27-year-old driver started the 301-lap race second and finished the first two stages in fourth and third, respectively. In the final stage, Elliott paced the field for 13 laps, before ultimately taking the checkered flag in the runner-up spot. That result was part of the No. 9 team's summer streak last year that saw Elliott record five consecutive finishes of second or better. The 2020 Cup Series champion has led 99 laps at the Loudon, New Hampshire, track and has started inside the top 10 all but three times, including rolling off the grid third or better in each of the last three events. Over the last two races there, he has the second-most stage points (28).
SIMILAR TRACK PERFORMANCE: In 53 Cup starts on tracks measuring 1- to 1.37-miles in length (Darlington Raceway, Dover Motor Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway, New Hampshire, Phoenix Raceway and WWT Raceway), Elliott has four wins. His first came at Dover in 2018 and was followed by his championship-winning performance at Phoenix in 2020. Last season, he won at both Dover and Nashville. Accompanying his wins are 22 top-five finishes, 28 top-10s and 1,246 laps led across those starts on this track type.
GREAT GUSTAFSON: Veteran crew chief Alan Gustafson has called 30 Cup Series races atop the pit box at New Hampshire. The Ormond Beach, Florida, native has collected two wins with two different drivers in his career on the 1.058-mile track, the first with Kyle Busch in 2006 and the second with Mark Martin in 2009. Along with Gustafson’s two wins, he has eight top-five finishes, 14 top-10s and 563 laps led. Most recently, he led the team to a second-place finish with Elliott in 2022 at “The Magic Mile.”
TO THE POINT: Elliott gained one spot in the Cup Series point standings following Atlanta and now sits 23rd, 60 markers outside of the provisional cutline for a playoff spot. With seven races left in the regular season, the Hendrick Motorsports driver needs to gain an average of nine points per race against the bubble to advance to the playoffs on points. While pointing his way in isn't impossible, the most straightforward way for Elliott to lock himself into the playoffs is with a victory. He has earned three of his 18 career Cup Series wins across two of the seven tracks left in the regular season (Pocono and Watkins Glen International). At four of the other tracks, he has nearly taken home the hardware, finishing runner-up at New Hampshire, Richmond Raceway, Michigan International Speedway (three times) and Daytona International Speedway (twice).
DOUBLE DUTY IN THE POCONOS: On Wednesday, it was announced that Elliott will run the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway on Saturday, July 22, before climbing behind the wheel of the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet for Sunday’s Cup Series event. The 2014 Xfinity champion will drive the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, which is his first start for Hendrick Motorsports’ Xfinity Series program. Across 82 races in the series, Elliott has five wins, 34 top-five finishes, 66 top-10s and 689 laps led. He won the title in his rookie season driving for JR Motorsports.
Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on looking ahead to New Hampshire: "A few weeks ago, we were one of the cars that got to do the tire test, so that was nice. We had a good run there last year. Kind of gave one away, I didn't do a very good job there on the last run and that was frustrating. Loudon hasn’t been the greatest track for me in general, so the fact that we even had a shot to win was nice. I’m looking forward to going back. I thought we had a solid test. We weren't the best, but I thought we made some gains and that's always a good thing."
Alan Gustafson, crew chief of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on how the team is approaching the rest of the regular season: "It’s really pretty simple to me. We do the best we can every week. I think people expect some grand plan, but we just try to do the best we can. We put our effort and heart and soul into each and every week. We bring the best car we can to the track and try to extract every point we can out of every single weekend. We’ve just got to give it our best effort, minimize mistakes and be prepared. That's all we can do and the rest will take care of itself. If we can't perform well enough to make it in or win, then we're probably not going to do very well in the playoffs anyway. So, my focus is to do the best we can and meet our potential. If we do that, then we'll make it and I know we'll be successful."
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