by Patrick Zier | Apr 10, 2026 |
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.
by Patrick Zier | Mar 24, 2026 |
Tyler Reddick is the talk of the town, or at least the center of conversation, in NASCAR nation right now. Four wins in six starts will do that for you. And it has led to a lot of speculation over where Reddick and the 23XI team stand in relation to the Big Three, Gibbs, Hendrick and Penske.
Just six years old, 23XI, owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan, is unquestionably making waves beyond its years. But they’re not big enough to wash over Gibbs, Hendrick and Penske. Because right now, 23XI is a one trick pony.
To be really competitive with the Big Three, you need to have outstanding leadership and direction at the top, the best people building and preparing your cars, and drivers who consistently perform at a high level.
Hamlin, whose many years with Gibbs give him an insight into how an elite organization is run, and Jordan, who has had unparalleled success in the NBA, provide the necessary leadership.
Whether or not 23XI has developed enough skilled engine builders, mechanics, fabricators, data processors, etc, to compete at an elite level is still open to question, and it definitely has to improve the talent behind the wheel. Reddick can’t hold 23XI up by himself.
That said, if you look around, 23XI is still in the best position to eventually put itself on a par with the Big Three. For a while Trackhouse, owned by Justin Marks, was considered the Cup team most likely to make a move.
But Trackhouse does not appear to have the necessary resources to consistently compete with the Big Three, and in fact its performance has declined in recent years.
For one thing, it gets limited help from Chevrolet, while 23XI has a working agreement and full backing from Toyota through Joe Gibbs Racing.
And as the Big Three have improved the performance of their Next Gen cars, Trackhouse, a much smaller operation, has struggled. The best example of that is Ross Chastain, who has always been Trackhouse’s lead driver.
In 2023, Chastain scored 385 points on the Old Guy Sport competition index and finished fifth overall in the standings. The OGS competition index is being used instead of the NASCAR point system because it rewards racing, not finishing, which is still the primary criteria for NASCAR.
But Trackhouse immediately began falling off after that, as Chastain’s OGS totals indicate. In 2024, he fell to 183 points and in 2025, he was down to 124. This year, he has just two points after four races (OGS does not count superspeedways in its totals because winning on a superspeedway, like Daytona or Atlanta,, is basically a matter of luck.)
Meanwhile, led by Reddick, 23XI is thriving. Reddick did not perform well in 2025 when he scored just 154 points, but several things beyond his control, including too many mistakes on and off the track and poor decision making by the team as a whole, contributed to that.
Still, as mentioned, if 23XI is going to take the next step, it has to have more than one competent wheelman. Bubba Wallace, the first driver signed by 23XI, has been solid but not spectacular and doesn’t seem to be improving. Riley Herbst is new this year and is having trouble getting going.
Astute as ever, Hamlin has no illusions as to where his team stands. On his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin was clear about where 23XI is now and what it needs to do if it is truly going to challenge the Big Three.
To be on a par with Gibbs, Hendrick and Penske, Hamlin said 23XI must have “long term, sustained success with multiple drivers. That’s the simplest definition I can give you.
“We’re in the neighborhood,” Hamlin continued. “We’ve got the framing up. Foundation’s built. The sticks are going up. Walls, roof are soon to follow,”
Hamlin added.
In other words, 23XI still has a ways to go, but it’s getting there. After he won the race at Darlington, Reddick was asked if 23XI was now at the same level as the Big Three.
“I’ll let y’all figure that out,” Reddick replied according to NASCAR’s website. “We’ll just keep working hard and winning races, and we’ll let you guys (the media) figure that part out. I don’t need to say anything about it.”
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Martinsville: 1-Christopher Bell, 2-Kyle Larson, 3-Ryan Blaney. Last year’s winner in Martinsville spring race: Denny Hamlin. Top five in Martinsville spring race last year: 1-Hamlin, 2-Bell, 3-Bubba Wallace, 4-Chase Elliott, 5-Larson.
Last week’s Darlington picks: 1-Bell, 2-Larson, 3-Hamlin. Darlington winner: Tyler Reddick. Old Guy Sport record after four races, 2-2.
OGS competition index top 10: 1-Reddick 138 points, 2-Bell 115, 3-Hamlin 86, 4-Blaney 84, 5-Brad Keselowski 63, 6-Ty Gibbs 52, 7-Larson 43, 8-Shane van Gisbergen 41, Elliott 41, 10-William Byron 35.
OGS competition index top 10 on short tracks (tracks most similar to Martinsville): 1-Bell 61, 2-Blaney 53, 3-Larson 30, 4-Gibbs 20, 5-Hamlin 11, Joey Logano 11, 7-Ryan Preece 1.
by Patrick Zier | Mar 21, 2026 |
It still stings. Even after Denny Hamlin’s big win at Las Vegas Sunday – and it was a big win, huge even – the disappointment still lingers. For Hamlin and his crew chief, Chris Gayle, it bubbled to the surface once again while the two were celebrating Hamlin’s 61st career victory.
It was a monumental achievement. It moved Hamlin out of a tie with Kevin Harvick on NASCAR’s all-time winners list and put him in sole possession of 10th place.
Just ahead is Kyle Busch with 63 wins and Hamlin could very well pass him before the season ends because outside of the superspeedways, Busch has no realistic shot at winning anyplace else.
And that has nothing to do with the driver and everything to do with Richard Childress Racing, which no longer builds cars that can contend and win races on regular tracks.
“It’s very gratifying because I saw, like, the legendary Mount Rushmore guys, I’ve raced against them,” Hamlin said of his 61st win, according to NASCAR’s website.
Hamlin was referring to Hall of Famers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Gordon is third all-time in wins with 93. Johnson is tied for sixth with 83 along with Cale Yarborough. “I think probably there’s at least two on Mount Rushmore I got to race against and I know how good they are,” Hamlin added.
“Winning your first race of the season is always gratifying,” Hamlin continued. “I’m no fool. I know my reactions are deteriorating. There’s all kinds of things that are deteriorating.
“Father Time is undefeated,” Hamlin, who will be 46 Nov. 18th, remarked. “Three months is a long time to be off. It’s like ‘Okay, am I still at the level that I was last year?’
“Today (last Sunday) confirmed that nothing has changed, which is really good” Hamlin said. “It’s a good sign. We’re still able to do it (race) at a really, really high level. So it’s just gratifying to me that I’m still getting it done at this age.”
But then you look up and there’s that black cloud again. The 2025 NASCAR championship that Hamlin deserved to win and should have won but lost because of NASCAR’s convoluted points system.
The Old Guy Sport competition index, which is a much better measure of how good teams are because it rewards racing over finishing, the primary criteria in the NASCAR points system, had Hamlin as the clear winner in 2025 with 677 points. Kyle Larson, NASCAR’s champ, was second with 530.
Four drivers entered the final race at Phoenix with a shot at the NASCAR title, and Hamlin dominated on the track, leading 208 of the 319 laps. But when Gale opted for a four-tire change instead of two on the last pit stop, Hamlin, who had come in first, lost track position and went out 10th, and he simply didn’t have enough time to make up the ground he had lost.
“We didn’t talk about it,” Hamlin, who has never won a championship, commented on NASCAR’s website. “If we did it was like 15 seconds. I think he might have…like I said, I don’t care,” Hamlin continued.
“It’s fine. I don’t need any explanation,” Hamlin went on. “We’re going to win and lose together. It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with Chris Gayle for these seven wins over the course of these 40 races or so we’ve been together.
“He’s just a great guy,” Hamlin said. “So underrated in what he does. I’m glad he’s getting the wins now that he deserves.”
For Gayle, it was tougher. He knew his four-tire call had cost Hamlin a championship. “Leaving Phoenix, that was probably the most dejected I’ve been in my life from a personal standpoint, from a business standpoint, right?” he said.
“I mean I probably sat around for three days rethinking everything I could have done. Then you go through those three days of where you’re kicking yourself. What are you going to do about it? You get over it.
“How am I going to react to this?” Gayle went on. “I could let it bother me forever. That’s not going to happen. I can move on, learn from it.
“In hindsight, seeing the bigger picture, putting it all on myself, I could have made some different decisions but…”
But last year is last year. This year, it looks like Gayle and Hamlin will get another chance, and this time maybe it will work out. Hamlin is as good as anybody at what he does and so is Gayle. They need to do this soon, though, because Father Time won’t wait forever.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Darlington: 1-Christopher Bell, 2-Kyle Larson, 3-Denny Hamlin. Last year’s winner of Darlington spring race: Hamlin. Top five in Darlington spring race: 1-Hamlin, 2-William Byron, 3-Bell, 4-Tyler Reddick, 5-Ryan Blaney.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport Vegas picks: 1-Hamlin, 2-Chase Briscoe, 3-Blaney. Vegas winner: Hamlin. OGS season record, 2-1.
OGS competition index top 10 after three races: 1-Bell 115 points, 2-Hamlin 86, 3-Reddick 75, 4-Blaney 54, 5-Ty Gibbs 52, 6-Shane van Gisbergen 41, Larson 41, 8-Chase Elliott 40, 9-Byron 35, 10-Michael McDowell 15.
OGS top 10 on intermediate tracks (tracks most like Darlington): 1-Hamlin 75, 2-Elliott 40, 3-Byron 34, 4-Bell 24, 5-Larson 11, 6-Gibbs 10, 7-Blaney 1, Logano 1, Brad Keselowski 1.
