It has been a struggle for Chevrolet's NASCAR Cup Series in recent months, as aside from Shane van Gisbergen's road course victory at Sonoma Raceway, they haven't won a race since Daniel Suarez won the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
They haven't won a full-length oval race since Chase Elliott won at Texas Motor Speedway, more than three months ago.
Elliott hasn't even recorded a top 10 finish since May, yet after Sunday's race at Iowa Speedway, he finds himself as Chevrolet's top driver in the point standings once again.
Chase Elliott is top Chevy driver in NASCAR Cup standings
Carson Hocevar, who won at Talladega Superspeedway in late April, entered Iowa fifth in the points, tops among all Chevrolet teams, but he matched his season-worst finish of 31st at Iowa after experiencing multiple issues throughout the afternoon.
Elliott overcame a practice crash, a subsequent poor qualifying effort, and a pre-race penalty to lead laps at Iowa, and he had worked his way onto the same pit strategy as the leaders while running up front. However, more issues in the pits left him needing to work his way back up the order just to salvage 15th.
That's been the theme for Elliott as of late. In the eight most recent races, he's finished between 11th and 17th seven times, with the exception being his 37th place Brickyard 400 effort.
So much for "consistency".
He had been second in the standings earlier in the year, largely thanks to his wins at Martinsville Speedway and Texas, but he had slid to sixth before Sunday's race. Now he's dropped back to seventh, and even as Chevrolet's top driver, he is mathematically eliminated from winning the regular season championship.
There are 228 points still on the table over the course of the regular season's final three races at Richmond Raceway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and Daytona International Speedway, with that total dropping to 225 points assuming everybody runs every remaining race, since the last-place finisher is guaranteed to score at least one.
Elliott is now 266 points behind points leader Denny Hamlin, meaning that with nearly a month remaining in the regular season, Chevrolet already has no shot of winning the regular season title.
Hamlin owns a 103-point lead over Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs, a 110-point lead over Team Penske's Ryan Blaney, and a 120-point lead over 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick. Those four drivers are the only drivers who can enter the postseason as the top seed and claim the 100-point bonus (25 points over second place) that comes with it.
Richmond Raceway's Cook Out 400 is set to be shown live on USA Network beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET this Saturday, August 15. Begin a free trial of FuboTV and catch all of the action from the Richmond, Virginia short track!
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