Chase Elliott knows he is taking the NASCAR community for a roller-coaster ride that may end with missing the Cup Series playoffs for the first time in his eight-year career at the highest level, but he just isn’t riding the highs and lows like everyone else seems to be.
“I’m going to continue going about my business the way I always have,” Elliott said during a scheduled media scrum on Saturday at Watkins Glen International. “That’s being prepared and doing the best job we can as a team, that’s all I’m after.
“I am not here for the drama or theatrics. I just want do the best job I can for our team.”
Elliott is the most popular driver in the sport, not to mention the 2020 Cup Series champion, so fanfare inherently follows him at every corner. At the same time, Elliott just isn’t allowing himself to feel the playoff pressure the same way his fans do or how the media has peppered him with questions about it over the past month.
“I think what you guys look at as pressure is not the same as how I look at everything,” Elliott said. “Keep that in mind. I just want to do the best job that I can, and that’s all I’m after, being the best version of myself and extracting that from my team.
“If we do that, then the points and all those things take care of themselves. I just look forward because that’s all you can influence and change or have an impact on. Looking backwards doesn’t do a lot of good.”
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That means there is no sense in having conversations about the six weeks he missed due to injuries sustained in a March snowboarding incident in Colorado nor his one-race suspension for intentionally crashing Denny Hamlin during the Coca-Cola 600.
Those are seven opportunities he missed to potentially have won a race or had enough championship points to make this a moot point, but all he can focus on are the races he can control. That includes his runner-up finish to Michael McDowell last weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course or his 15th-place qualifying effort at The Glen on Saturday.
The latter especially frustrated him because he was one spot short of advancing to the pole round on Saturday and unleashed a series of expletives because he knew that car was capable of qualifying inside the top five.
“We had a lot of pace, so I need to learn to drive the vehicle faster,” Elliott said.
Because of his qualifying effort, it’s going to be a tremendous uphill climb for Elliott to charge his way through the field and contend for the win he needs to make the playoffs on Sunday.
In fact, only two winners over the past 18 races at The Glen have come from outside of a top-10 starting position. Why is that?
“Aero is king and you’re going really fast,” Elliott said. “You do the math.”
Those speeds and the aerodynamics of the modern Cup Series car make passing a tremendous challenge.
So, what can Elliott focus on?
“I just try to logically think through the areas I need to be better in,” Elliott said. “I try to piece it together, that’s all you can do. We have so much data and things that we can look at to get better, but it sometimes can make you worse.”
“But I’m just focused on the areas of the track where I know I can do a better job. I’m not worried about everyone else because focusing on myself and our team, that’s what will generate the best results for us tomorrow.”
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But again, Elliott isn’t getting caught up in the drama and theatrics of the playoff narrative. He’s been in NASCAR for over a decade, having won two Xfinity and a Cup championship, so he knows drama.
He knows how to process it and accept when doesn’t work out, which might be the outcome after next weekend at Daytona.
“We’ve been doing this for a long time,” Elliott said. “We’ve ridden the roller-coaster for a long time now. This is not uncharted territory being in a bad position and needing to go out there and do well. We’ve failed before.
“You learn lessons through all those situations, and they make you better. Everyone is fine. We know what our jobs are. We try to keep our jobs simple.”
And if it doesn’t happen at Watkins Glen, there’s always Daytona, as daunting as that sounds.
“Daytona is a, you know, to show up there and needing to win is like going to Vegas and needing to hit the first jackpot you pull. That’s just silly. This is the opportunity we have the most control over. We didn’t have a great start to the weekend and that’s a tough spot to be in.”
“But look, it’s no one’s fault but mine that we’re in the spot that we’re in. I hate it but it is what it is. We’ll fight tomorrow until the last lap and hopefully something will fall our way.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.