NASCAR Cup Series: Is Chase Elliott the new driver to beat?

With three wins in the last 11 races and two wins in the last three, is Chase Elliott the new driver to beat in the NASCAR Cup Series?

A few months ago, the name Chase Elliott was synonymous with two things in the NASCAR Cup Series, one positive and one negative. The positive one was “rising star” and the negative one was “choker”.

The son of 1988 Cup Series champion Bill Elliott has been widely heralded as NASCAR’s next superstar, and since the retirement of 15-time reigning Most Popular Driver Award winner Dale Earnhardt Jr., he has been heralded as NASCAR’s next most popular driver.

However, before the race at Watkins Glen International on Sunday, August 5, 2018, the 2014 Xfinity Series champion had competed in 98 Cup Series races, of which 93 had taken place since his full-time Cup Series career began in the 2016 season.

Elliott failed to get to victory lane in each and every one of those 98 races, and several of them involved him giving up late leads after he appeared poised to secure what would have been his first Cup Series victory on multiple occasions.

But the man who haters began to call “Chokin’ Chase Who Can’t Win A Race” did exactly what these haters did not expect him to do and won a race on Sunday, August 5. Ever since then, he has been performing at the highest level of his Cup Series career.

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Elliott went on to win the round of 12 playoff at Dover International Speedway race a few weeks ago and the round of 12 playoff race at Kansas Speedway this past Sunday, giving him three victories in the last 11 races and two victories in the last three.

Suddenly, only three drivers have won more races than Elliott has so far this season, and only one other driver has won as many races as he has.

That one other driver, Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski, has won three of the last eight races (in fact, he won three consecutive races), but he was eliminated from the playoffs following the round of 12.

The three drivers who have earned more victories than Elliott has so far this season are the three drivers who quickly became known as the “Big Three” over the course of the season’s first 23 races.

During these 23 races, these drivers, who are Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch and Furniture Row Racing’s Martin Truex Jr., earned a total of 17 victories. All three of these drivers are set to join Elliott in the third round of the four-round, 10-race playoffs, the round of 8.

To put this in perspective, these drivers all made it to the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway last season. They entered that race, the 36th and final race of the season, with 14 combined victories throughout the season’s first 35 races.

Simply put, these three drivers dominated the majority of the 2018 season. But recently, that has changed.

Comparing what Elliott has done recently to what the “Big Three” have done recently, there is really no comparison. As opposed to the veterans taking him to school like they had done on many occasions throughout the first two-plus seasons of his Cup Series career, it has been the 22-year-old Dawsonville, Georgia native taking them to school.

Elliott’s three victories so far this season have all come since early August. Meanwhile, Harvick, who has earned seven victories so far this season, has earned only two victories since he won the race at Kansas Speedway mid-May, of which none have been earned since he won the race at Michigan International Speedway in mid-August.

Busch, who has also earned seven victories so far this season, has earned just one victory since he won the race at Pocono Raceway in late July, and Truex Jr., who has earned four victories so far this season, hasn’t earned any victories since he won the race at Kentucky Speedway in mid-July.

Not only that, but the final four tracks on the 2018 schedule are all tracks at which Elliott has had success before.

As far as the round of 8 tracks are concerned, Elliott’s average finishes of 7.40 at Texas Motor Speedway and 6.80 at ISM Raceway, the track at which he nearly won last year to advance to the Championship 4, are the highest among all eight round of 8 drivers, and he nearly won last year’s round of 8 race at Martinsville Speedway to advance to the Championship 4 as well.

Also, Elliott’s average finish at the Championship 4 track, Homestead-Miami Speedway, is 8.00, which is the second highest average finish at the track among the average finishes of the eight round of 8 drivers. Only Kevin Harvick, whose average finish at the track is 6.76, has a lower average finish than Elliott does at this track.

Do you believe that Chase Elliott has become the driver to beat in the NASCAR Cup Series? Do you believe that he will make a run at the 2018 championship? With just eight drivers remaining in championship contention and Elliott being the hottest of the eight with just four races at four tracks where he has had past success remaining on the schedule, don’t rule it out.