Chase Elliott reflects on year-long victory drought in NASCAR
It’s been a year since Chase Elliott drove into the victory lane in the Cup Series.
Chase Elliott has opened up about his year-long victory drought in the NASCAR Cup Series, as he returns to the scene of his most recent race win.
The Hendrick Motorsport driver recorded his last Cup Series victory almost a year to this date at Texas Motor Speedway, which hosts the 11th round of the 2025 season this weekend.
Elliott has now gone 37 races without scoring a victory, marking the second-longest win drought in his career.
The 2020 champion previously went 42 races without a win, ending that losing streak in Texas last year. This means he has scored just two wins in the last 80 races.
Asked if he feels encouraged about returning to Texas, or worried about being in the same position as 12 months ago, the 29-year-old: “I guess both.
“Well, the good news was it [last year's race] went well. The bad news was it was 12 months ago. A lot changes in a year, and things that we are working on behind the scenes, whether a set-up path or a race strategy path or whatever it is, that is going to outweigh something that went on 12 months ago.
“It’s hard to reflect that far back and think that, ‘Oh, we’ll just do what we did last year,’ and that’s going to be perfect because most of the time that’s not the case. The lessons that we’ve learned lately are likely more applicable than those 12-plus months ago.”
While lack of wins may be seen as a cause of concern, a run of consistent results in 2025 has allowed him to grab fourth place in the standings, 70 points down on teammate and overall leader William Byron.
Elliott said he is “somewhat happy” with his performance so far this year, before adding: “We want more. I think we’re capable of more. And we just have high expectations.
“We are proud of those good runs that we’ve had, but we know that there’s more in the tank. The season’s still very early, and I’ve seen enough high spots to kind of give me hope.”
Elliott credited the crew of the #9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for helping him finish inside the top 20 in all 10 races so far this year.
At Daytona, Atlanta and COTA, the Hendrick crew had to repair the damage to his car to allow him to salvage some points.
“Our team does a really good job of just trying to piece stuff together,” he said. “It just comes down to those guys being prepared on pit road for toe-link changes or needing to patch together body pieces.
“A lot of that stuff comes from their preparation and hard work throughout the week to just make sure that they’re ready for those types of circumstances that can be thrown at them.
“So that is the only reason why we didn’t finish outside the top 20 at those races. It’d be great to pair that with some really good results and race wins.”
