Although not in the Cup Series Drivers Playoffs, Chase Elliott has been one of the most consistent drivers since the drop of the green flag at Darlington on the first weekend of September.

The 2020 series champion’s weekend at Las Vegas sure didn’t start out the way that he or his fans would have liked. Chase’s weekend started as the 9 car lost a right rear during practice sending him hard into the outside wall. The team spent the rest of the day prepping a backup car for the race causing the 9 to miss qualifying.

Elliott would proceed to go a lap down to his teammate and eventual winner early on in the race and it was just downhill from there. Elliott would remain laps down all race long and never quite have any speed. The Hendrick No. 9 would end the race as the last car 1 lap down and finish only above cars that had issues including Briscoe who brought out the last caution along with Gibbs, Bowman and Hocevar.

Elliott’s Playoffs run although for Owners points, have been spectacular even compared to the Drivers Playoff contenders. The previous 6 races saw Elliott net 5 Top-10s and never scoring less than 31 points in a race. Until Vegas, where he only scored a grand total of 6 points on the afternoon. Following Vegas, he racked up a total of 232 points easily netting himself the 6th most points when compared to the Playoff drivers.

In the Owners Standings, the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 currently sits in 8th out of 8, 76 points out of the lead and 60 below the cut line for the Final 4. Going on to Homestead-Miami and Martinsville, where Chase finished 14th and 10th respectively last season, there is no reason to expect poor performances out of the 9 team here in 2023, so Elliott remains a solid contender for the Owners title and ensuring he does not go winless for the first time since 2018.