Consecutive top-fives show Chase Elliott turning the corner?

After Chase Elliott failed to complete inside the highest 10 within the first 4 NASCAR Cup Sequence races of the yr, he and the No. 9 staff look like turning the nook. 

Elliott’s third-place end at Martinsville on Sunday is the 2020 Cup Sequence champion’s third top-eight end within the final 4 races, with the lone outlier being a Sixteenth-place run at COTA that was marred by a course-cutting penalty. 

With finishes of eighth at Bristol, fifth at Richmond, and third at Martinsville, it looks as if quick tracks are Elliott’s bread and butter to start out the season, a stunning revelation given his affinity for highway programs over the previous a number of seasons. After a brutal 2023 marketing campaign, nevertheless, Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson seemingly aren’t too choosy over which races they run effectively in. 

“I really feel like all through the season, we have been working in a superb course, and dealing actually good collectively,” Elliott said after Sunday’s race. “Alan has been calling actually good races. I believe if we simply hold producing, we’ll get our flip in the future.”

Elliott will surely welcome a win sooner relatively than later, because the Dawsonville, Ga. native is presently the proprietor of a 42-race winless streak, which dates again to Talladega within the fall of 2022. With Talladega arising on April twenty first, that subsequent checkered flag could also be within the playing cards quickly. 

For Elliott and his staff, nevertheless, good runs are extra vital than something, because it exhibits he could also be lastly turning the nook and reverting again to championship kind.