The expectations for Chase Elliott have always been high, much higher then they were for his dad, Bill, who essentially worked his way to the top after starting out with a home-grown team.
Bill Elliott’s father, George, owned Bill’s first Cup car and the team was built around Bill and his brothers, Ernie and Dan. When they pulled into the garage, nobody knew who they were and nobody cared.
It was different for Chase, who came into the game after his father established himself as one of NASCAR’s all-time greats and who, it was thought, could be even better than Bill.
After dominating in late model and at NASCAR’s lower levels, Chase Elliott moved right to the top, securing a ride at Hendrick Motorsports, one of NASCAR’s big three along with Joe Gibbs Racing and Penske.
And he has done well. By almost any measure, he has to be considered one of the top 10 drivers in the sport. And yet, something seems to be missing. Maybe that’s due to his understated personality.
The Elliotts, both Bill and Chase, have always been rather reserved in public. They aren’t the kind of people who attract attention to themselves in a manner like, say, the Waltrip brothers.
They seem a bit uncomfortable in the spotlight, although Chase, probably because of his father’s experience and because he has been forced to deal with his success differently with the advent of social media, is more resigned to being pushed out front.
Still, high expectations can be frustrating. It’s like dealing with a swarm of gnats. They’re annoying and not really much of a threat, but sometimes you just feel like you’ve got to try and swat them away.
And of late, Chase Elliott has come under a great deal of criticism for his failure to produce the way many thought he would. While he is very good at what he does, he has never really reached elite status in the sense of a Denny Hamlin or Kyle Larson or, some would say, even a Ryan Blaney or Christopher Bell.
Elliott appeared to be on his way until 2023, when he suffered a broken fibula in a snowboarding accident and missed six races. He was coming off a big 2022 when, using the Old Guy Sport competition index as a measure, he was second in the standings with 455 points and led going into the last race only to be passed by Joey Logano.
He never really recovered from that. In 2023, he finished 12th with 193 points. He was seventh in 2024, but far behind the leaders with 331, and his total dipped to 278 last year.
That led to people saying he had lost his desire to race and that his crew chief, Alan Gustafson, was no longer on top of his game. Many were calling for a change, although Elliott was quick to defend himself and Gustafson.
And he got a chance to fire back after winning the recent Cup race at Martinsville. Elliott has been a notorious slow starter, and the win came in the seventh race of the season. That’s the earliest Elliott has ever won in his career.
And that was primarily the result of Gustafson deciding to pit him early, about two-thirds on the way through the race. It was a gamble, but it gave Elliott a chance to move to the front and when a caution fell later, Elliott was able to hold on and win.
“Goes to show he’s (Gustafson) pretty good at what he does, which I try to tell Y’all all the time,” Elliott commented after the race according to NASCAR’s website. “He does a pretty good job. I’m happy to work with him,” Elliott continued.
As for the negative commentary on social media, Elliott has learned to live with it. His focus is on doing his job and helping Hendrick Motorsports get better.
“I think for us, the more you do this I think the more you keep an eye internally more than you do externally,” Elliott said. “For us (he and Gustafson), I think we’re just super honest with each other, what we need to do, where our deficiencies are, where the areas are that we’re good at, whatever.
“I think that we’re – as time goes on, we’ve done nothing but get better at kind of being able to sort out our weaknesses in our own meetings, doing what we need to do to get the job done. It’s a very, very straightforward approach,” Elliott commented.
“I enjoy working with him (Gustafson). I genuinely feel that way,” Elliott stated. “I hope he feels the same way about me. I give him all I’ve got every week, even when it’s not pretty.
“I think, because of that, it works,” Elliott said. “It’s simple. We just show up and go to work, man. We try to do the best we can to put the best result out there for everybody involved.”
And because Elliott is not one who wants to be on center stage, he is more open to change than many in the sport.
“I try to have that approach, for sure,” he said. “I think from my perspective, I just want the best result for all of us. However we get there, whatever that looks like, if I’m the problem, I’m the problem. Just help me figure out how to fix it and get better.
“So yeah, I definitely try to be open-minded…I tell Alan this, I’ve told him this throughout the course of the season, ‘Hey, look, whatever you want to do, rip it. I’ll support you whether it goes good or doesn’t go good.’
“I think it’s important for him to have that confidence. When he has confidence in a call, I’m going to have confidence in trying to make it work because I want it to work, too.
“I mean it’s really pretty simple from my perspective,” Elliott went on. “I want to do well, make sure I’m carrying my weight, doing my part for our team. If that means doing something different, I’m good with it.”
And as for the gnats that continually swarm around him and Gustafson, that’s frustrating but not a gamebreaker. Sometimes though, it does feel good to swat them, like he and Gustafson did at Martinsville.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Bristol: 1-Ty Gibbs, 2-Ryan Blaney, 3-Denny Hamlin. Last year’s winner of Bristol spring race: Kyle Larson. Top five in Bristol spring race last year: 1-Larson, 2-Hamlin, 3-Gibbs, 4-Chase Briscoe, 5-Blaney.
Old Guy Sport Martinsville picks: 1-Christopher Bell, 2-Larson, 3-Blaney. Martinsville winner: Chase Elliott. OGS record after five races, 2-3.
OGS competition index top 10: 1-Hamlin 151 points, 2-Tyler Reddick 138, 3-Bell 115, 4-Elliott 102, 5-Blaney 84, 6-Gibbs 72, 7-Brad Keselowski 63, 8-William Byron 46, 9-Larson 43, 10-Joey Logano 42.
OGS competition index top 10 on short tracks (tracks most similar to Bristol): 1-Hamlin 72, 2-Bell 61, Elliott 61, 4-Blaney 53, 5-Logano 41, 6-Gibbs 40, 7-Larson 30, 8-Byron 11, 9-Ryan Preece 1.
