After Chase Elliott earned his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory at Watkins Glen International in August 2018, he went on a series-high five-year streak of multi-win seasons.
He won three races in 2018, three more in 2019, five more in 2020 en route to the championship, two more in 2021, and a series-high five in 2022, year number one of the Next Gen era.
But excluding this year's preseason Cook Out Clash exhibition race at Bowman Gray Stadium, he has just one win since October 2022, and that win came at Texas Motor Speedway nearly a year ago.
After the recent race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports drivers had a top three sweep of the point standings, with Daytona 500 winner William Byron leading the way ahead of Homestead winner Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman.
But Elliott was down in sixth place, even though his worst finish of 20th is the best worst finish among all 36 full-time drivers this year.
There has been a lot made about Elliott's apparent lack of competitiveness lately, and the fact that his teammates were all inside the top three in points with him several spots lower naturally generated some hot takes.
But skip ahead one week later, and after Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway, now there is a new top three sweep of Rick Hendrick's drivers atop the point standings. And this time, it's Elliott behind Byron and Larson.
Despite his recent lack of winning, with just one trip to victory lane in his 77 most recent starts, Elliott's performance has not fallen off a cliff. Last year, he finished the season in third place in total points, placing him ahead of all four drivers who actually made it to the Championship 4. And it took him until the second half of the season to finish a single race outside of the top 20.
His fourth place finish at Martinsville on Sunday matched his best finish of the year, and it could not have come at a better time.
He also finished in fourth at Circuit of the Americas after rallying from last on the opening lap. At this point last year, he had finished no higher than fifth.
And yes, through seven races in 2025, his average finish of 11.7 is indeed the best in the series. So is the panic really justified?
Bowman is now in a fourth place tie with Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell, so you could technically argue that Hendrick now has a top four sweep. However, the tiebreaker is officially wins, and Bell has three to Bowman's none and is therefore officially classified in fourth ahead of Bowman in fifth.
Let's just hope this change doesn't lead to its own overreaction, especially since there are seemingly rumors about Bowman's Hendrick Motorsports future every single season.
Darlington Raceway is scheduled to host the eighth race on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule this Sunday, April 6. The Goodyear 400 is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 from the "Lady in Black" beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action!