Chase Elliott is easily one of the best road-course drivers in the field. Across 42 starts, the Hendrick Motorsports driver holds seven wins and an average finish of 9.2 on the teisty stuff. Yet the last time Elliott stood in victory lane on a road course came in 2021 at Road America.
Since then, he has knocked on the door with three runner-up finishes but has not managed to win. During a recent episode of the Inside the Race podcast, Kyle Petty and Steve Letarte offered a take on why Elliott’s run of road course wins has dried up.
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The veterans blamed the shift on the Next Gen car for changing how the machine feels to drivers, removing cues that once helped some to stay ahead of the pack. When Elliott drove the older car, he could read the car easily.
With the arrival of the Next Gen, that line of communication has shifted. In Petty’s eyes, the edge Elliott once carried has faded as a result. In fact, other drivers, such as Kyle Busch, have also faced the same task of relearning the new package. “This car has changed the trajectory of a number of different drivers,” said Petty.
Former HMS crew chief Steve Letarte shared a similar view. “He’s had some really good runs. I think that the car is different. It’s the same sport going to the same tracks, but it takes a different driving style. It has five speeds, not four,” Letarte said.
*“It doesn’t have an H pattern. It’s sequential. It has bigger brakes. So I guess this is what this really is. I think Alan [Gustafson, crew chief] and Chase are the only two that could probably say, ‘Well, we don’t win because we’re not as good here or not as good here.’ They don’t win because something in their bag of magic is no longer available. Something has gone away, and they haven’t been able to find the feel or something in this car.”*
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Even so, since the arrival of the Next Gen car, the #9 HMS driver has finished outside the top 10 in eight of his last 23 road course starts. He has continued to stay within striking distance when the series reaches left- and right-turn tracks.
This season at COTA, Elliott started from fifth and crossed the line in seventh after his own pit call that brought him in for fresh tires just before a caution flew when a tire from Ross Chastain rolled onto the track ahead of him. The last time Elliott led laps on a road course came in 2024 at Sonoma Raceway, where he paced the field for three laps.
The post NASCAR Insiders Break Down Why Chase Elliott Cannot Win on Road Courses Anymore appeared first on The SportsRush.
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