CONCORD, N.C. – Chase Elliott and the No. 9 team continue to advance through the owner playoffs in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season.
The group put together a strong Round of 12 that saw Elliott have the second-best average finish (9.00) and points (121) in the three-race round behind teammate William Byron. On top of that, he earned the most stage points (37) in those races. Sunday’s race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL saw Elliott lead 15 laps, pick up his second stage win of the season and score the second-most points in the race (42). Elliott recovered from an ill-timed caution when he was about to short pit at the end of stage two and a flat tire in the final stage to finish ninth.
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"We’ve all been working hard and everybody’s been trying to improve," crew chief Alan Gustafson said. "It is a testament to the hard work. You never want to put the cart in front of the horse, but hard work always pays off. You just know it’s going to hit and you just got to keep working until it does. The team has done that and now you are starting to see some of that payoff. Probably not through the level that we want with not winning, but certainly with the consistency of performance in the car, the performance on pit road and all the things that go on throughout the race weekend. We just have to keep that up. If we do that, good things will happen."
Those performances extend what has been a strong stretch of races for Elliott dating back to the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. In those seven races, he has one top-five finish and six top-10s with no finish outside of 11th. If you focus on just the playoff races, he is tied for the most top-10 finishes with Byron (five), tied for the second-most points with teammate Kyle Larson (226) and is second in average finish (8.00). The 27-year-old driver also has the fifth-best average running position (10.11) in the postseason. Through 32 races, the No. 9 pit crew has the ninth-fastest average four-tire pit stop at 11.303 seconds.
"I’ve said this multiple times throughout however many weeks we’ve been going at it, I don’t feel any different,” Elliott said of how he is going about his business being in the owner playoffs as opposed to the driver playoffs. “My approach each week has been just like as if I was part of the show from a driver’s standpoint. It’s just really not any different. There’s a lot on the line on the owners’ side to the teams. It’s a really big deal.
"Thankful that between Josh (Berry), Jordan (Taylor) and Corey (LaJoie) and myself, we were able to get the car in on the owners’ side. That’s a meaningful thing. I’ve been just as motivated for that as I would have been if I had made the driver’s side. We’ve enjoyed the challenge of the first few weeks and hope we can continue to advance through the rounds. It’s a good opportunity and there’s still a lot of racing left this year. We’d like to continue to improve like we have been and get back up in the mix."
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Entering the Round of 8 opening race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Elliott is eighth in the owner points standings at 4,002 points. That leaves him 19 points below the elimination line. The owner championship carries a huge amount of importance to teams. This championship is where the payout to teams is determined.
This is not the first time that a team has been in on the owner playoffs while the driver is not in for the driver championship. Last year, the No. 5 HendrickCars.com team reached the Championship 4 on the owners’ side, even though Larson was knocked out of the driver playoffs in the Round of 12. Elliott reached the Championship 4 in the driver championship, but the No. 9 team didn't advance to the round on the owner side of things.
"We've kind of been through this as a company," Elliott told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio last week. "It is unique and it's such a hard thing to talk about, I feel like, because a lot of people don't really understand kind of how that works. And the business aspect of it and what goes on there."
The No. 9 team will seek to make gains at Las Vegas. In 12 starts at the 1.5-mile track, Elliott has three top-five finishes (including a track-best runner-up result in the 2021 playoff race) and five top-10s. He’s also picked up three stage wins at the Nevada venue. Due to injury, Elliott did not drive the car in the spring – Berry did.
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Gustafson has yet to win at Las Vegas, but he does have two runner-up finishes, six top-fives and 10 top-10s across his 24 Cup Series starts. One of those runner-up results came with Elliott, while the other came with Kyle Busch in his first premier series start at the facility. The Round of 8 also features races at Homestead-Miami Speedway (where Gustafson won with Jeff Gordon in 2012) and Martinsville Speedway (where the crew chief has three wins – two with Gordon in 2013 and 2015 and one with Elliott in 2020).
"This round is the hardest," Gustafson said. "It is tough. The playoff cars are going to populate the top and it is going to be hard to gain points on people because you are going to have to finish in the top four in every stage and every race to get to where you need to be. It’s fun. That’s what you want to be doing. I enjoy the challenge.
"I feel like – last year was a little different (in the driver and owner playoffs). We had a huge points advantage and had a sliding performance. This year, we have a points deficit and improving performance. I would take this over the other because I think our performance is escalating and if you have the performance on track, you can overcome 19 points."
Tune in to watch Elliott, Gustafson and the No. 9 team push forward in the owner championship on Sunday, Oct. 15, at 2:30 p.m. ET. Coverage of the 267-lap race will be on NBC, NBC Sports App, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).