Good but not great, says Chase Elliott of 2025 NASCAR campaign

Chase Elliott basically says his 2025 season was good but not great.

Two wins 11 top-5s19 top-5s

While Elliott finished eighth in the current championship format, he did score the fourth most points overall from Daytona in February to Phoenix in November, a testament to the season-long consistency the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team is known for over the course of the past three seasons.

There just hasn’t been enough wins for the standards they set for themselves.

“I think for us, it was okay at times, and really solid at times, but it just wasn’t great,” Elliott said during a press conference for his most popular driver award. “We've had some high spots here or there but certainly not as consistently doing that as what we would like.”

Qualifying is actually his biggest concern going into the 2026 season. His average starting position was 16.1 this year down from a career average of 11.1. This has cost him stage points at times but also placed his team at a pit stall disadvantage.

“The qualifying thing certainly has been a huge point of emphasis, throughout the course of the season,” Elliott said. “I felt like we gained on that the last couple of months. We were way more competitive in that regard.”

Of course, making the playoffs means that Elliott is then amongst the last to go out every single week too.

“I feel like some of our best performances all year really came in the last month and a half or so, which was nice,” he said. “It’s always fun to end the season in a good spot.”

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