KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Chase Elliott took full advantage of the final race of the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
He earned extra points by finishing in the top 10 in both Stages 1 and 2 at Kansas Speedway, and took the checkered flag in fourth place, giving him his fourth top-five finish through six postseason races.
It was enough to advance him to the Round of 8 along with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson.
“It was a wild day, for sure,” Elliott said. “We fought our balance all weekend. I know the result wasn’t terrible, but definitely feel like we could have been a lot better this weekend and just the way things worked out for us.”
Elliott enters the penultimate round of the playoffs as the eighth seed with 4,006 points. He trails fourth place – the last driver that would advance to Homestead-Miami Speedway with a shot at a championship – by just 11 points. He’s 63 points behind the points leader, Martin Truex Jr.
It marks the furthest Elliott has advanced in the playoffs in his young Cup Series career. Last season, he made it to the Round of 12 as a rookie but was eliminated at Talladega Superspeedway just short of the Round of 8.
In order to keep his quest toward a title alive, the driver of the No. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet SS said he’ll be looking for an even better performance than his fourth-place result at Kansas moving forward.
“Our car got better as the day went along, we just didn’t have the balance on a very long run to go up and pass guys like you need to have,” he explained. “So, we will go to work and get this side of things ready for Martinsville.”
The Round of 8 begins this weekend at Martinsville Speedway. The race is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.