Chase Elliott has become known as one of NASCAR’s most consistent drivers in recent years, but that came with a caveat: he wasn’t winning nearly as much as he used to.
From 2018-22, Elliott won 18 races along with the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series championship. From 2023-25, however, he won only three races.
The consistency he’d had since the dawn of his Cup career was still there. The wins were not.
But the No. 9 team has turned the tables this season. Elliott won at Martinsville and Texas, scoring two wins in the first half of the season. On the other hand, inconsistency has reared its ugly head at times. While still sitting sixth in the Cup Series standings and only being 61 points out of third entering Sunday’s race at Chicagoland, Elliott has just eight top 10s through the first 18 races of 2026.
Chase Elliott speaks on 2026 inconsistency
The Hendrick Motorsports driver still has a solid average finish of 13.2 this season but hasn’t finished top 10 since Nashville on May 31. He hasn’t recorded consecutive top 10s since he finished eighth at Kansas, fourth at Talladega and won at Texas on May 3.
“I think our high spots and our good days have been better than some of our good days last year to this point in the season,” Elliott said Friday at Chicagoland. “I think we’ve been a little inconsistent. I’ve certainly made a lot of mistakes throughout the course of the year that have cost us some finishes.
“Would love to clean some of that up. But I’m encouraged by that in a lot of ways. I do think some of the high spots have been really encouraging from a pace perspective. I think our team’s performing at a high level. Just want to try and get a good little of string of races together. Minimize mistakes. Feel like our team’s in a good spot.”
At the least, Elliott is still in a coveted top-six spot many drivers believe they must be in in order to have a realistic shot at the championship when the Chase begins at Darlington on Sept. 6.
Quotes provided by NASCAR Media.