NASCAR: Even without winning, Chase Elliott has proven he can win anywhere

Still with zero career NASCAR Cup Series wins in almost two full seasons, Chase Elliott has proven that he can win at any track. Seriously.

Chase Elliott, 21, has now driven in 76 career NASCAR Cup Series races over three seasons, two of which as a the full-time driver of the #24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, and he has still not yet won a race. However, he has recently proven that he can win at any track.

Yes, you read that right. With zero career Cup Series victories, Chase Elliot has proven that he can win at any track. And there’s no catch.

Coming into this season’s playoffs, this may not have been the case. Elliott had driven in 67 career Cup Series races up to this point in time, of which 62 were as a full-time Hendrick Motorsports driver in the 2016 and 2017 seasons. But his performance in the playoffs have shown this to be true.

More from NASCAR

Coming into the playoffs, Elliott had three career-high finishes of 2nd place in his 67 career races. All three of those 2nd place finishes were at Michigan International Speedway, a 2-mile D-shaped oval. He had never finished higher than 3rd place at any other track.

However, Elliott kicked off the playoffs with a 2nd place finish at the 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway, and he went on to finish in 2nd after nearly winning at the 1-mile Dover International Speedway just two weeks later. The following week, he finished in 2nd again at the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Three weeks later, Elliott was leading at the 0.533-mile Martinsville Speedway with two laps to go with a chance to clinch a spot to the Championship 4. It took Denny Hamlin wrecking him with just over one mile to go to keep him from winning that race.

Then most recently, Elliott finished in 2nd place at the 1-mile Phoenix International Raceway, which actually isn’t anything like the 1-mile Dover International Speedway.

Sure, most of those 2nd place finishes that have taken place in this year’s playoffs were heartbreaking for Elliott, especially at Phoenix, as had he won, he would be advancing to the Championship 4 with a shot to win his first career NASCAR Cup Series championship.

However, the fact that he has gotten so good at all kinds of tracks shows that he can win anywhere even though he still has zero career Cup Series victories. Having proven he can compete at the front at all kinds of tracks, it would not be a surprise to see him start reeling off victories once he gets the monkey off his back with career win number 1.

Next: NASCAR Stage Racing: Pros and Cons

With Chase Elliott showing strength at pretty much all kinds of tracks on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, at which track will he finally be able to secure his first career victory in the series? How much longer will we have to wait until we see him in Victory Lane?

Home/NASCAR