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DARLINGTON, S.C. — Chase Elliott is not amongst the 16 drivers racing for the NASCAR Cup Series championship but he is driving one of the 16 cars chasing a NASCAR Cup Series championship.
This is more than semantics.
It’s become well-documented to this point, including in stories posted here and here, but the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 team is eligible to compete for the owner’s championship and those are the standings that actually pay a majority of the purse at the end of the season.
NASCAR and the teams design the championship purse structure like this specifically as a safeguard against what happened to Elliott in March when he missed six races due to injuries sustained in a snowboarding incident in Colorado.
The No. 9 car continued racing and earning championship points each week with Josh Berry, Jordan Taylor and Corey Lajoie even as Elliott recovered. Thus, the No. 9 car made the owner standings even if the missed races prevented Elliott from advancing on points.
Thus, Elliott will spend the next two months racing for all the perks and benefits of the championship, even if he is ineligible for distinction in the record books. In other words, if Elliott can somehow drive the No. 9 all the way to the Championship Race in November at Phoenix Raceway and win that championship, he and the team will earn the corresponding bonuses.
“I don’t really know how they structure that within the company,” Elliott said on Saturday at Darlington Raceway. “But we certainly know that it’s significant from NASCAR, and while I’m not sure where it goes once the teams get involved, it definitely has meaning to everyone.”
Hendrick faced a similar situation last fall when the No. 5 car was still owner’s playoff eligible even after Larson was eliminated from the driver championship. Larson and Hendrick negotiated a clause over what the driver would earn if he won the owner’s championship. He ultimately took the No. 5 car all the way to the championship but lost out that afternoon.
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“I’m still treating it like we’re in the deal because the car is,” Elliott said. “You have to go and bring your best every week to advance from round to round. So, we’ll see.
“Whether I was in it or not, I want to come to the race track every week and just do better.”
Elliott says it’s an interesting spot to be in because he and crew chief Alan Gustafson would want to experiment over the next 10 weeks to see if they could hit on something for next year, or even something that would help championship eligible drivers Larson and William Byron this autumn.
But the owner’s championship is too valuable to not try to race to their current maximum potential.
It also has a degree of pressure associated with it.
“It has significant meaning to advance the vehicle and number through the rounds,” Elliott said. “No one is going to talk about that much because it’s irrelevant if you’re not in the driver’s, to the outside public anyway.
“But that’s not the case, so it’s a tough balance because I want to be better and I want to prepare for next year and use some of these races to make ourselves better. But it’s not a throwaway at this point because we’re still racing for something.
“So we have to do both in moderation and still try to perform.”
Ultimately, Elliott just wants and needs to be better, be it through experimenting ahead of next season or rising to the occasion the owner playoffs over the next 10 weeks. Even with the seven races missed, one for a suspension after intentionally crashing Denny Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600, Elliott remains winless this season.
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Whether it entirely falls at his feet, Elliott says he’s taking that responsibility on himself, mostly because his execution is all he can control the rest of the way.
“To be frank, and I’m not just saying this, but I don’t think the cars are the problem,” Elliott said. “Look at how William, Kyle and Alex have run at various points throughout the season, and I just don’t think (the cars) are the excuse.
“That’s just not how I work. I think I can be better to extract pace out of the car and that’s what I’m going to work on.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.