CONCORD, N.C. - There are plenty of numbers that point to Chase Elliott being a legitimate contender to win the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Much has been made of his consistency and that shines through the statistics like a lighthouse beacon on a foggy, coastal evening. That reliability should provide Elliott fans with a similar sense of optimism.
"I’m excited to get these next 10 races started," Elliott said after an 11th-place finish at Darlington on Sunday. "There are some good tracks in there for us, so I’m excited to get to those and try to make the most of the places that we’ve struggled at. I would love to tackle that this year, so we’re going to work really hard these next 10 weeks, bring everything we’ve got and hopefully it’ll be enough to get to the Championship Four.”
To Elliott's point, the playoff slate would seem to fall into his favor. At nine of the 10 postseason venues, Elliott carries an average finish of better than 14th and 10 of his 19 career victories have come at those tracks. He leads all full-time drivers in average finish (12.4) in the Next-Gen era and his six DNFs are the fewest.
And that's just a small part of the story. Here's a look at Elliott by the numbers, including his 2024 season and playoff career:
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2024 season
Starts: 26
Wins: 1
Average start: 11.1
Average finish: 11.6
Top fives: 7
Top 10s: 12
Laps led: 213
Playoff career
Playoff appearances: 7
Starts: 64
Best playoff finish: 1st (2020)
Wins: 7
Average start: 8.8
Average finish: 13.2
Top fives: 25
Top 10s: 34
Laps led: 2,216
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Career starts at playoff tracks
Martinsville Speedway:18
Talladega Superspeedway: 17
Kansas Speedway: 17
Phoenix Raceway: 16
Las Vegas Motor Speedway: 14
Bristol Motor Speedway: 14
Atlanta Motor Speedway: 11
Homestead-Miami Speedway: 8
Watkins Glen International: 7
Charlotte Roval: 6
Career average finish at playoff tracks
Charlotte Roval: 8.2
Watkins Glen International: 9.4
Kansas Speedway: 10.2
Homestead-Miami Speedway: 10.4
Bristol Motor Speedway: 11.6
Atlanta Speedway: 11.8
Phoenix Raceway: 12.6
Martinsville Raceway: 12.7
Talladega Superspeedway: 13.7
Las Vegas Motor Speedway: 18.6
Career wins at playoff tracks (10 of 19 career victories)
Talladega Superspeedway: 2
Watkins Glen International: 2
Charlotte Roval: 2
Martinsville Speedway: 1
Phoenix Raceway: 1
Atlanta Motor Speedway: 1
Kansas Speedway: 1
Career laps led at playoff tracks
Martinsville Speedway: 1,104
Phoenix Raceway: 546
Bristol Motor Speedway: 444
Kansas Speedway: 249
Talladega Superspeedway: 214
Las Vegas Motor Speedway: 178
Watkins Glen International: 170
Atlanta Motor Speedway: 164
Charlotte Roval: 109
Homestead-Miami Speedway: 31
Career top-10 finishes at playoff tracks
Kansas Speedway: 11
Martinsville Speedway: 11
Bristol Motor Speedway: 8
Phoenix Raceway: 8
Talladega Superspeedway: 8
Atlanta Motor Speedway: 7
Las Vegas Motor Speedway: 5
Charlotte Roval: 4
Watkins Glen International: 4
Homestead-Miami Speedway: 3