NASCAR: Chase Elliott’s team can clinch a playoff spot
By Asher Fair
Even without Chase Elliott competing in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Gateway, the No. 9 team can clinch a spot in the playoffs.
Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott is set to miss his seventh race of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, this time because he is suspended as a result of a move he made on Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin in Monday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Elliott will not drive the No. 9 Chevrolet in this coming Sunday afternoon’s Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by TicketSmarter at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. Instead, Corey LaJoie, who usually drives the No. 7 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports, is set to fill in for him.
Though he is not behind his usual No. 7 Chevrolet, LaJoie can clinch a playoff spot with a win in Sunday’s race. A full-time driver who qualifies for the postseason is able to compete for the championship in any car.
He can also lock the No. 9 team into the NASCAR Cup Series owner playoffs, even though that wouldn’t mean anything for Elliott’s own playoff aspirations.
Why? Because on the flip side, a team that qualifies for the postseason is able to compete for the championship with any driver. The reason for this is the fact that the driver playoffs and the owner playoffs are completely independent of one another.
Last year is a perfect example. Elliott advanced to the Championship 4, but the No. 9 team was eliminated in the round of 8 of the owner playoffs because of the fact that the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team got into the owners’ Championship 4, even though the driver, Kyle Larson, was eliminated in the round of 12.
The No. 9 team currently sits in 16th place in the owner standings, while Elliott only sits in 28th in the driver standings. The points scored by his replacement drivers in the six races he missed count toward the No. 9 team’s point total, but not Elliott’s.
DraftKings Sportsbook lists LaJoie’s odds to win Sunday’s race at +3500.
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Begin a free trial of FuboTV today and don’t miss Sunday afternoon’s Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by TicketSmarter at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. Fox Sports 1 is set to broadcast the race live beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET.