The Cup Series‘ inaugural race at Iowa Speedway was spectacular. From a sold-out crowd to action-packed racing, the Iowa Corn 350 delivered a stellar weekend for several drivers. Ryan Blaney, in front of an adoring home crowd, secured his first win of the 2024 season and a spot in the playoffs. That being said, not every driver had great intuitions heading into the weekend.

To make the inaugural Cup Series race happen, NASCAR had to repave the corners at Iowa Speedway. Whilst this seemed like an inevitable outcome, the Cup Series Most Popular Driver didn’t have a lot of faith as he stated, “I don’t have high hopes for what it looks like, at least.”

Fortunately, Chase Elliott’s intuitions were proven wrong. The #9 Hendrick Motorsports driver brought home a satisfying third-place finish at Iowa to overtake Kyle Larson in the regular season championship as the new leader.

Cup Series action at Iowa Speedway surprises Chase Elliott

Over the past week, the biggest concerns for most drivers and teams heading into Iowa Speedway was not the lack of practice, but NASCAR’s decision to repave the corners. As the speedway withstood harsh winters one after another for four years, the track’s surface deteriorated to a point where the lack of traction made for entertaining racing.

However, with the Next Gen car’s complexities, the sport felt a partial repave was necessary. However, this is what made teams fear further issues during the race. Although the corners had been repaved to best suit the Next Gen car, the straights were left relatively untouched. As a result, drivers such as Chase Elliott couldn’t help but compare the bumpy ride to that of poorly built interstate highways.

Ahead of the race, Elliott had shared with Yardbarker, “It’s like hitting a big bump on the interstate. It’s really rough. The only difference is these cars are as low to the ground as we can have them, where your street car isn’t.” Evidently, the #9 HMS driver wasn’t too optimistic about the longevity of tires on such a surface, and felt that the weekend could throw curveballs at any minute.

Fortunately, those curveballs never came Elliott’s way. Instead, NASCAR’s most popular driver was pleasantly surprised. He shared in a post-race interview, “There were a lot of surprises, wasn’t really sure what to expect with the tire and the racetrack kinda changed a lot, I thought, throughout the day. The lanes changed a lot, we were able to move around.”

Although a few of Elliott’s intuitions regarding the track’s uncertainty hit the nail on the head, the #9 driver walked away with a bigger smile than he expected. Elliot concluded, “I thought it was actually a much better race than I was anticipating it being with the repave, so thought all of that was really good………So it’s nice being in the fight though and having a shot there in the closing laps.”

At the end of the Iowa Crown 350, it’s safe to say that Chase Elliott sort of took back his earlier complaints against the repave, and for good reason. With another top-five in the bag, the driver, who many thought had lost his touch, is now giving Kyle Larson a run for his money.

That being said, the #9 Hendrick Motorsports driver also showcased humility as he revealed what it takes to have such consistency.

Chase Elliott gives Lady Luck her dues as the #9 HMS crew powers ahead

As things stand, Chase Elliott leads the regular season championship with 591 points achieved through 9 top-ten, 7 top-fives, and a single win that takes his average finishing position to 9.119. Although Elliott’s competition (Hamlin and Larson) both have three times his wins this season, Chase Elliott has them beaten in terms of consistency.

Compared to Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin‘s 13.064 and 13.765 average finishing positions, Chase Elliott certainly has the upper hand. Naturally, this proves that the #9 driver has what it takes to become a champion. Still, one question intrigues many HMS fans, just how has the #9 garage finished inside the top-twenty for each of the 17 races so far?

According to Elliott, the answer is a combination of resilience and fortune. The Most Popular Driver shared post-race, “I feel like we’ve been working on the right things throughout the season, but just to finish all the races you need to have some good fortune going your way and I think we’ve been fortunate enough to stay out of trouble a couple of days where we probably should have been in trouble.”

Feeling that Lady Lucky has truly favored the #9 garage this season, Elliott believes the team now needs to focus on what they can control. He concluded, “For us, we just gotta focus on the things that we can control and that’s to get prepped throughout the week and bring in fast race cars like we’ve been doing, keeping ourselves up there in the fight and let the rest of it kind of figure itself out.”

With Chase Elliott’s consistency catching up to Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin, has one of NASCAR’s most beloved drivers regained his stride?