Here’s Chase Elliott’s theory on why he’s still winless in 2025

After 16 of 36 races in 2025, Chase Elliott sits fourth in the regular season standings. While he remains winless, the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has finished inside the top 20 in every single race this year and holds the third-best average finish of all drivers.
Unless there were suddenly several new winners over the next ten weeks, his place in the playoffs is very secure, so how would he rate his season so far? Elliott agrees that it’s been a “good” season for him, but “it’s not where I want to be, no doubt.”

Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: Jam Media / Getty Images

He continued: “I think for us there have been some high spots and to be honest, there have been weeks where we have run well where we have had a good finish, and there have been weeks where we have not had a good finish and I can go home and be like, ‘man, we were in the mix, and we had good pace today’.
“And those are the weeks where you just want to feel like you are in the ball game as it pertains to pace, doing the right things, and getting up in there and giving yourself a shot. Those days I can go home and have something to be proud of. It’s the days and weekends where we are just not even relevant that I think are the most frustrating to me. We have had more of those than I would want to have and that we would want to have as a team. So, I think it’s been good but not satisfactory for myself or to our team, but there is still a lot of racing left in the season and I think we have ourselves in a position to make a mediocre day alright. We can build from it, and we still have a chance.”
And while consistency is nice, Elliott was quick to note hoe the current format is all about winning, especially if you want to go very far in the playoffs.
“It’s way more important to win and to get those Playoff points in fives than to have to wait till the end of the regular season and maybe get eight or ten, depending on where you finish in the points,” explained Elliott. “So, you need to have some wins, and you need to finish good in the points and then kind of double down on that to get yourself in a really good spot. The consistency is nice, no question. I think our team has done a really good job taking some of those days where we were not having a good day, and digging in, and finding a way to just get something halfway decent out of it. Sometimes that can be a really hard thing to do, and I am really proud of them for that. Because it’s easy to throw in the towel on those days, just lose it and be done and go try again next week. But we as a whole, we don’t know any better and we just keep trying, keep pushing, and make the most out of whatever the day has brought us.”
What Elliott needs to be better

Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

While Elliott’s pace has been solid, he’s rarely had winning pace. Teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson have both led over 750 laps this year while Elliott has yet to reach 100 (currently at 95 laps led). Surprisingly, even teammate Alex Bowman, who is a bit further down the standings in 12th, has led more laps than Elliott. 
In a Saturday media availability, Elliott was asked about the gap between himself and his teammates. He believes the major thing he needs to fix in order to bridge the gap is to get better at qualifying. All three of his teammates have earned at least one pole position this year while Elliott’s best start came at Martinsville. Starting second, he went on to lead 42 laps and finish fourth in one of his best showings of the year.
“I think there are a lot of things that go into that. It’s a little bit of everything truthfully, but I think probably the biggest one, is qualifying,” said Elliott. “You know I think the qualifying thing is so important and an area that I have struggled in. No doubt. So, when I look at some of the races … I look at Michigan, I think Michigan is a good example. We got ourselves up front and when that happened, I thought we were super competitive.
“It was like night and day from running around 10th to 20th and just a lot of traffic, and starting runs in traffic and it can just really dictate what your car drives like. So, I think being up front, having a really good pit stall, keeping yourself up there, it can change the complexion of your day in such a large way that it can really be overlooked. So, I think that would be really top of mind for me as I look at what is one thing that we can do to help ourselves, and I think that is probably it.” 
Fresh off his first podium finish of the year in Mexico City, Elliott now heads to Pocono where he won the Cup race back in 2022. He’s also running the Xfinity race this weekend — and started things off on a high note by earning pole position for the event.
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Nick DeGroot

NASCAR Cup

Chase Elliott

Hendrick Motorsports

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