{"id":22866,"date":"2018-11-09T18:15:01","date_gmt":"2018-11-10T00:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=22866"},"modified":"2018-11-10T11:47:36","modified_gmt":"2018-11-10T17:47:36","slug":"winning-is-all-chase-elliott-is-focused-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/09\/winning-is-all-chase-elliott-is-focused-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Winning is all Chase Elliott is focused on"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Chase Elliott<\/strong> arrives in Phoenix, Arizona needing to overcome a 17-point deficit to advance to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> championship race next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.<\/p>\n

\"\"

(L-R)Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, sits on pit wall with his crew chief Alan Gustafson and two crew members during qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Can-Am 500 at ISM Raceway on November 9, 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

He has an outstanding record at the ISM Raceway one-miler and a track record to be envied \u2013 four top-10 finishes in five starts. He was the runner-up to Matt Kenseth in this Playoff race last year.<\/p>\n

For the 22-year old Georgia native, the outlook for Sunday\u2019s Can-Am 500 (at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90) is pretty simple, win and he\u2019s in the Championship 4. It\u2019s not a complicated formula and doesn\u2019t require sleepless nights. His No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team just needs to perform.<\/p>\n

And that wouldn\u2019t be any different if Kevin Harvick\u2019s points from winning at Texas Motor Speedway had held up, instead of him being docked 40 points Wednesday after officials found an illegal spoiler on that Texas car.<\/p>\n

So the field is closer. Instead of an automatic berth to the title race, with the penalty, Harvick is now only three points ahead of fifth place Kurt Busch. And only Martinsville Speedway winner Joey Logano, has earned a position in the Championship 4.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/ISM_MENCS_Elliott_110918.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

\u201cWell, someone\u2019s misfortunate shouldn\u2019t be a morale boost for your team first off,” Elliott said when asked about benefitting from Harvick\u2019s penalty.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Playoff contender Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 Kelley Blue Book Camaro ZL1, makes a pit stop on his way to a 6th place finish Sunday, November 4, 2018 in the second phase of Round of 8 Playoff Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth, Texas. (Photo by Harold Hinson\/HHP for Chevy Racing)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cYeah, we are in a position anyway where I feel like we have to win and honestly, that needs to be the mentality anyway, because if you were to make it to Miami next week you are going to have to win down there, so you might as well embrace it and like it and move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elliott didn\u2019t mince words in his press availability trackside at the new-look ISM Raceway. He insisted his motivation to win was not affected by the points-shuffle as a result of Harvick\u2019s mid-week penalty.<\/p>\n

And he also bluntly downplayed any title talk by Logano, who told reporters this week that he should be considered the title favorite based on his Playoff work \u2013 a series best 4.2 average finish through the opening eight weeks of the Playoffs. And he is also the top points-earner during that time frame.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I don\u2019t really care what he thinks,\u201d Elliott said when asked about Logano\u2019s proclamation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to argue with Elliott\u2019s focus. The son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott is having the best season of his three-year Cup career. He scored his first ever Cup victory at Watkins Glen International this summer then answered it with Playoff wins at Dover International Speedway and then Kansas Speedway. He is the winningest Playoff driver in the field this year and comes to a track where he is considered among the best. His average finish of 6.8 in five starts is best on the grid and his driver rating of 110.3 is second only to nine-time Phoenix winner Harvick (110.9).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Playoff contender Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 Kelley Blue Book Camaro ZL1, races to a 6th place finish Sunday, November 4, 2018 in the second phase of Round of 8 Playoff Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth, Texas. (Photo by Tom Copeland\/HHP for Chevy Racing)<\/p><\/div>\n

Since a crash in the Las Vegas Playoff opener, Elliott has finished seventh or better \u2013 and won twice \u2013 in six of the last seven races. He was seventh at Martinsville two weeks ago and sixth last week at Texas.<\/p>\n

And there is some thought that the new track-look is less consequential for the young drivers with fewer starts there anyway. The start\/finish line now is near the old Turn 2 and Turns 1 and 2 are now Turns 3 and 4. And vice versa.<\/p>\n

The vibe Elliott gave off Friday, was unmistakable.  A championship points shuffle? A new track layout? None of it ultimately matters more than being first to the checkered flag on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, the track to me is the same, which is a good thing, I think this is a great track that we come to,” Elliott said.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s hoping to give them plenty to cheer about when the checkered flag flies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Chase Elliott arrives in Phoenix, Arizona needing to overcome a 17-point deficit to advance to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship race next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He has an outstanding record at the ISM Raceway one-miler and a track record to be envied \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":22869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[500,561,16],"class_list":["post-22866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-chase-elliott","tag-ism-raceway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/358522.jpg?fit=4746%2C3164&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5WO","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22866"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22872,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22866\/revisions\/22872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}