While this weekend in Atlanta saw many drivers kick-start their 2024 seasons like Daniel Suarez with the win and Bubba Wallace with another top-five, the same can’t be said for Chase Elliott. Ever since Elliott had his injury a year ago at Vegas, the driver has been trying his best to break his winless run of 36 races. Compared to William Byron, the #9 Hendrick Motorsports garage still has a long road ahead of them.

After Elliott had showcased great strength at Atlanta by winning the first stage, Dale Earnhardt Jr was vocal about how the 2020 Cup Series champion seemed to be on a path toward “resurgence.” But when asked about his prospects for 2024, Elliott feels a rebound is not what is in the works.

Chase Elliott spills the beans on his 2024 campaign

As NASCAR heads to Las Vegas, all eyes are on Chase Elliott, who suffered a snowboarding injury right around this time last year, triggering one of his worst Cup Series seasons with an average finish of 14.5. For a man who had won 18 races from 2018 to 2022, last season was a curveball unlike any other. Not only did Elliott fail to bring in any significant results in the second half of the season, but ending the year with four finishes outside the top 15 left a lot to be desired from 2024.

With that said, Elliott kicked off 2024 swinging, with two top-15 finishes that place him sixth on the standings as we head to Vegas. While this triggered many to speculate a rebound was in the works, Elliott doesn’t want to put that kind of pressure on his garage. Reflecting on the goals for 2024, Elliott was quoted by Fox Sports, “It’s not about rebounding or whatever. It’s just getting to the level that we feel we’re capable of achieving.”

Elliott shared that the only thing that mattered was taking steps forward compared to 2023, no matter how small. With various problems standing in the way of the former champion from achieving glory again, Elliott shared how the #9 garage is working to solve these issues: “We’ve identified some areas that need to be improved upon. Step one is identifying it. And then after that, it’s going to work and trying to find solutions.”

While many consider 2023 to be one of the worst seasons for Elliott, the Hendrick Motorsports driver felt it wasn’t as “doom and gloom” as it may seem. Acknowledging that the team could have capitalised on more opportunities to win last season, Elliott felt the goal was clear for 2024. He stated, “I have not been performing as I expect of myself, and like we expect of our team. We just want to do the job that we feel like we’re capable of doing and try to get to that point and do it consistently. That’s all we’re looking for.”

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The coming weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will be crucial for Elliott, not only because it gives us the first taste of the usual 1.5-mile racing we will expect to see every weekend but it also marks a year since Elliott’s injury set him back. While the #9 garage is eager to hit it out of the park this year, Elliott also revealed the one challenge that appears to be holding him back.

Elliott has one big challenge to overcome in 2024

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While many believe Elliott’s injury was a major reason for his mediocre performances over the last season, the truth is that the #9 driver has been struggling for some time longer. Despite winning six races in 2022 when the Next Gen car was launched, it seems like the transition to the new challengers has been harder than anticipated for the 2020 Cup Series champion.

Elliott shared, “It‘s always been a fine line of hitting it right, and I think that as you transition to new cars — which, mind you, this is the first time I’ve gone through a transition like that. So breaking habits and kind of reteaching yourself in some areas to ultimately extract performance is a hard thing to do when you’ve grown to do things a certain way.”

Working with crew chief Alan Gustafson, who has been with Elliott for nine years now, the main aim for the HMS star is to get up to speed with the Next Gen car. For Gustafson, the new season brings with it a fresh start. He stated, “What’s most exciting to me is the opportunity and the blank canvas we have this year to continue to build something good.”

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And on that note, it seems like the road ahead for Chase Elliott is fairly challenging, although now, with clear goals to accomplish and problems to work on in mind.