NASCAR: Chase Elliott continues to drive the success of Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

With his first victory of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season at Talladega Superspeedway, Chase Elliott continued to drive the success of Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott made himself the sixth different driver to win a race in the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season by winning the season’s 10th race, the GEICO 500, at Talladega Superspeedway in thrilling fashion.

The 23-year-old Dawsonville, Georgia native’s victory in the 188-lap race around the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked Talladega Superspeedway oval in Lincoln, Alabama was the fourth victory of his career.

But for Elliott, this victory illustrates something a lot deeper than the fact that he has been consistently able to win races ever since finally getting the monkey off his back and earning his first career victory in his 99th career start last August at Watkins Glen International.

It illustrates that he has been the driver, no pun intended, behind the little success that Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet have had over the course of the last few seasons.

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Elliott’s victory in Sunday’s GEICO 500 was his first victory since he won the round of 12 playoff race at Kansas Speedway in October of 2018. This victory was also Hendrick Motorsports’ first victory since he won this race, and it was Chevrolet’s first victory since he won this race as well.

Since Kasey Kahne won the 2017 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in his final season driving for Hendrick Motorsports, a total of 62 races have been contested. Since Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon win the 2018 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, a total of 45 races have been contested.

Hendrick Motorsports drivers have earned four victories in the 62 races that have been contested since Kahne earned what ended up being his final victory slightly past the halfway mark of the 2017 season.

Elliott, who was still winless in his Cup Series career just 25 races ago, has earned all four of them.

Chevrolet drivers have earned four victories in the 45 races that have been contested since Dillon opened up the 2018 season with his thrilling Daytona 500 victory.

Again, Elliott has earned all four of them.

Aside of the first four victories of Elliott’s career and Dillon’s 2018 Daytona 500 victory, the only two races that have been won by Chevrolet drivers since Kahne won the 2017 Brickyard 400 are the August race at Michigan International Speedway and the September race at Richmond Raceway in the 2017 season. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson won both of these races.

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Other Chevrolet drivers have certainly had strong runs over the course of the last several dozen races going back to the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series season, but there are no two ways about it: Chase Elliott has been the key driver behind the little success that Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet have had over the course of these last several dozen races, and his first victory of the 2019 season showed that that is still the case.

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