Chase Elliott’s crew chief Alan Gustafson has crafted a playoff plan as the Hendrick Motorsports star targets postseason success.

Last week, Elliott could only muster a 14th-place finish at Iowa as William Byron took the checkered flag. The Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol proved chaotic, with the race producing 12 cautions while Elliott clashed with Kyle Larson.

Despite the disappointing showing, Elliott and the team are in second place in the points standings with three remaining races. He is 18 points behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Byron, who has won two races after emerging victorious at the Daytona 500.

This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series rolls into Watkins Glen — a track forever synonymous with Elliott and the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts team. The 29-year-old won on his 99th career start, sealing a 250th win for Hendrick Motorsports in the process.

Ahead of his return to the site of his first win, Elliott is looking to the playoffs. His crew chief Gustafson has assessed the postseason races, which includes a Round-of-8 trip to Martinsville Speedway and the Championship 4 race at Phoenix Raceway.

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There’s also a trip to Richmond, which is one of the final events of the regular season. Gustafson is adamant Elliott will be ready thanks to improvements to the team’s flat track program.

“We’ve tried hard to get our flat track program better, and Richmond, I think, will be a really good test to put some of that to work and Gateway too,” Gustafson told HendrickMotorsports.com on Wednesday. “It’s a unique playoff with Gateway and Loudon in the playoffs now, so I think Richmond is a track that can give you some indicators for those tracks too.”

Gustafson is pleased with Elliott’s season so far but is eyeing further success. He added: “We obviously want to win the regular season but more importantly than that, we want to win some races.

“I’m excited about Watkins Glen. It’s a great track for us, and I really enjoy road course racing in general, and I love racing up there, so we’re excited to get up there and compete for the win.

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“Richmond is a race that, same thing, I like racing there. It’s a lot of fun. I’m excited to get there, and we’ve been working on some new things, so we would like to try to incorporate that at Richmond and try to win that race. And Daytona, we were really good (in the DAYTONA 500) in February. That’s as good as we’ve been down there in a while.”

Elliott will look for his second win of the Cup Series season at The Glen on Sunday, August 10.