Chase Elliott made his highly anticipated return to the NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway following his fractured left tibia and he did not disappoint. Elliott, 27, battled throughout the race as a strong final run gave him a top-10 finish in his first race back.
It was a very solid showing for the driver of the No. 9 car and one that should give him confidence moving forward. Elliott’s left leg will likely not face another challenge of that magnitude for a while due to the heavy braking at Martinsville.
NASCAR is now set to enter Talladega Superspeedway which is the polar opposite of Martinsville. In fact, the last time the Cup Series left Talladega, Elliott came home victorious with his only win during the 2022 playoffs.
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Chase Elliott talks about the challenges drivers will face at Talladega this weekend
The argument can be made that Elliott is NASCAR’s best superspeedway driver. Over the last nine superspeedway races (excluding Atlanta) dating back to the 2021 Daytona 500, Elliott has one win, two top-5 finishes, and five top-10 finishes.
These statistics are very similar to both Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney so when the Hendrick Motorsports driver talks about superspeedway racing, it is important to listen since it will give others a good idea of what to expect.
Elliott faced unfortunate luck in the Daytona 500 which caused him to finish in 38th place while he missed the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway since he was still recovering from his fractured left tibia.
Therefore, the 27-year-old driver lacks experience in superspeedway racing compared to his competitors this season. Elliott talked about the challenges ahead as Talladega has become more of a track position game with the NextGen car.
“The way (superspeedways) look and track position has become so important. There’s not really a third lane option now with these cars. We saw that at Talladega in the fall last year. We had really good track position all day. Then we look at Daytona, this season at the 500, heck, you just couldn’t go anywhere. The lanes get side-by-side and they get stacked up. The third lane is just too sketchy, you almost have to tandem to do that…
It just ends up falling apart, and not having that third lane forces guys to be side-by-side in those second two rows and kind of jockey for position all day. It puts a lot of emphasis on track position and your pit stop cycles. It makes you think about where you are on track from the start of the race because I don’t think you’re going to go from 15th to the lead in the last 20 laps unless you get lucky on a wreck or something.”
Chase Elliott on racing at Talladega this upcoming weekend
This is something that was shared among other competitors. Following the Talladega race last October, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin called the racing a train of two lines and said it was so hard to pass since drivers can’t run three-wide with the NextGen car.
Former Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch also shared similar thoughts following the Talladega race last April. Busch said it was hard to pass all day and that if two lanes were formed and pushing, there wasn’t enough for a third lane to form and gain speed.
NASCAR took a step forward at intermediate tracks with the NextGen car but it has definitely lowered the quality of superspeedway tracks. Hopefully, Talladega does not behave as it did during the 2022 season, and the racing returns to the pre-NextGen car era.
In the meantime, whether you are watching it live or looking for how to watch NASCAR on TV, Sportsnaut has you covered for the upcoming weekend at Talladega Superspeedway!