NASCAR: Chase Elliott Will Win A Race Sooner Rather Than Later

Chase Elliott was expected to be a contender for the Rookie of the Year award, but he could run away with the race if he continues his recent success.

Chase Elliott has big shoes to fill. It’s not everyday that you take over for one of the greatest drivers the sport of NASCAR has ever seen. Four championships, 93 wins, you name it. Jeff Gordon was the epitome of what it meant to be a driver during his time behind the wheel.

Now, as he settles into his new role as an analyst for Fox, he gets to mentor a kid that is probably younger than a lot of NASCAR fans out there.

At just 20 years of age, Elliott has already won five Xfinity Series races to go along with his 2014 Championship. He has raced in 10 Sprint Cup Series races and has won the pole for the Daytona 500, the biggest race of them all.

Elliott has now reached his first off weekend of his full-time Cup Series career with absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.

Though he wrecked in the opening laps at Daytona, he went on to have a solid 8th-place finish in Atlanta. After that he faced another wreck at Las Vegas, a race where he had run in the top-10 consistently again. His maturity after the accident was like that of a true professional as he blamed himself (via sportingnews.com):

"“I’m just disappointed … Just a terrible job on my behalf, man, pitiful to run three races and finish one. Just a bad job on my end. I ought to know better to miss a wreck like that.”"

He swore that he could’ve avoided the wreck by getting “off the brake.” However, if you take a look at the incident one more time, he did not have too much time to react, plus, he might’ve risked hitting Paul Menard, who was passing by at the time of impact.

Once Elliott got past that, he went on to have two stellar races, one at Phoenix and one at Auto Club. The desert provided Elliott with another 8th-place finish at a track he had raced well at in the past, then the fun began once he reached Fontana.

Elliott was a contender all day long at the 2.0-mile track, running in the top-10, top-5 and even getting up to 3rd-place late in the race. Though he eventually finished 6th, he looked as if he had mastered Auto Club’s wide turns at times throughout the day. His great outing was enough to move him into the final spot in the Chase standings.

Though Daytona would’ve been a question mark, Elliott arguably could have at least four top-10 finishes already this season had he not slammed into Matt Kenseth at Las Vegas.

You can make the case that he is simply equipped with the right kind of team, the right kind of cars and the right kind of resources that he needs to succeed–which he is–but his success and his recent races have proved that he’s simply a good driver that is going to do great things just like his dad did.

There’s more to like about Elliott rather than his solid style of racing. His attitude towards whatever comes his way is fantastic. He is always ready to move on to the next event and improve no matter what happens and just seems calm and collected about every situation he encounters. It’s almost like he’s been racing for a few seasons already.

Certainly before the season began, it would’ve been difficult to persuade people to think he would pick up a win in his rookie season, but after what we’ve seen out of him through his first stretch as a Cup driver, I don’t think it’s as crazy to think about anymore.

There’s even a few tracks coming up in the next couple of months, like Texas, Richmond and Michigan, where he had an average finish of fifth or above during his time in the Xfinity Series.

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Though Chase Elliott still has a long way to go in his career, he has made a nearly perfect transition from Xfinity to Cup Series racing. With a great team around him and teammates that are willing to help him improve, he could very well end up with a win and a decent run in the Chase during his rookie season.