Chase Elliott and the No. 9 team seem to have lost their momentum, possibly at the worst time of the season. The teams like SHR and RCR with Kyle Busch and Chase Briscoe turned a new leaf, but Chase Elliott and his team have found themselves on the bitter end of things. The speed hasn’t been an issue for them throughout the season, but losing their streak of consistent runs is indeed a worrying sign.

Before the Olympic Break, Chase Elliott was right alongside his teammate Kyle Larson for the regular season championship. However, in his last four starts, he has only managed a single top-10 run. A concerning sign indeed for the driver who is looking to make amends after missing the playoffs last year.

Chase Elliott is in dire need of hitting his markers going into Atlanta

Consistency and a streak of good results mount to victories. This is something Elliott and his crew know very well. If we are to take the results of the #9 in the first 22 races, they always ended inside the top 20 places apart from his run in Chicago. Mind you, this run also included six top-5 results and a win at Texas Motor Speedway.

Elliott kept Denny Hamlin at bay, something his star teammate Kyle Larson is yet to do. But, the mid-season break has cost them dearly, and the HMS star is very much aware of his bleak runs in the past four weeks. “The last few weeks have definitely not been good, which is a terrible time right to have bad runs. The Daytona thing, I mean, that’s Daytona right, you know it was just a bummer…So unfortunately you know that happened and hopefully get there Atlanta this weekend without any issues.”

It’s not that Elliott didn’t have any joy in the last four races, but he was certainly disappointed with his Darlington run. “We were really bad Sunday night, but Michigan, I thought we were really respectable and actually led some laps and was upfront for most of the day. I can’t say I’ve been super discouraged by any of the last three weeks. Certainly disappointed with Darlington, I would say probably more than anything in a while.”

Given the grueling format of the playoffs, drivers have limited opportunities to advance further. While Elliott’s losing streak is a concern for him, all he needs is one win to get back in form. And counting him out of the contention wouldn’t be a wise call, to say the least.

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One of the big praises you can give Chase Elliott this season is that he has managed to keep his hands clean, avoided any conflicts, and had a consistent run. His dependability shines through on the racetracks that are in the playoff schedule. In the Next Gen era, in 52 stars at the venues in the post-season, Elliott has always managed to finish the race every time but once.

And it has to be noted that more than half of his career wins (10 out of 19) have come at the tracks in the playoffs. This includes victories at Charlotte Roval, Martinsville, and Phoenix, which eventually guided him to his championship win in 2020. Although Shane van Gisbergen has taken the crown of road course ace, Elliott certainly isn’t far behind. With Watkins Glen and Roval lined up in the Round of 16 and 12, he could certainly edge ahead of the competition to secure a deep playoff run.

Although Chase Elliott isn’t feeling optimistic about his playoff run, he is indeed one of the safe bets out there. And don’t be surprised if he does make the championship 4.