Chase Elliott Unexpectedly Weak At Las Vegas With Next Gen Car
1 month agoEven though Chase Elliott contended to win at Las Vegas a couple times with the Gen 6 chassis, he has generally struggled with the Next Gen chassis, as he has never led a lap at the track or finished better than ninth with this chassis. He only qualified 18th for Sunday's event, while all three of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates made the final round of qualifying. Even though he is still delivering consistent finishes and has the best average finish of the year, that won't really help him much with a points system that significantly rewards drivers for leading on specific laps, when he has only led more than five laps once in the last 14 races. He may very well get his usual top-10 finish, but he will probably lose stage points to several other playoff drivers and will likely remain below the playoff cut line.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference