CONCORD, N.C. – This weekend at Kansas Speedway, Chase Elliott is set to make his 32nd 1.5-mile track start.
It’s a track length on which he has found success in his career.
In the third-year driver’s previous 31 starts on 1.5-mile tracks, he has led 245 laps and averaged a starting position of 13.8 and finishing position of 14.6. He has collected nine top-five finishes – two of which were runner-up results – and 16 top-10s.
He’s looking forward to adding to those totals on Sunday.
“Over my first couple of years competing in the Cup Series, we have had a couple of really good runs there,” Elliott said of Kansas. “We have struggled there at times as well, but when we have hit it, we have been good. I think we can certainly have a good run there this time around.”
In the No. 9 team’s favor is the fact that Elliott took part in an organizational test at Kansas last month.
There, Elliott posted the fastest speed of 186.477 on the first day of testing and the team gained valuable information to utilize this weekend.
“At Kansas, we had a great test,” No. 9 team crew chief Alan Gustafson said. “So, we’re going to go there and work on our mile-and-a-half program and try hard to win that race. I think getting as many points as we can and closing the gap to the guys in front of us will help significantly.”
Elliott has already clinched his spot in the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs thanks to his win at Dover International Speedway earlier this month.
Each of the next four races on the schedule – including the entire Round of 8 – come at tracks that the Cup Series has already visited this season.
Elliott views that as an advantage as the playoff contenders battle toward the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“I think going back to places that we raced at once already this year is probably the big one, I guess, and having some history there from the spring race to look at the fall race upcoming,” he said. “I would say that is probably the biggest thing is kind of being able to look back on how you ran that first race and see whether or not you have improved since its respective date.”
The driver is ready to find out how much the No. 9 team has improved since the first Kansas race in May, when Elliott finished 12th.
“I’m looking forward to this one,” he said.