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Chase Elliott has taken home two checkered flags at Talladega in his career – this past weekend he came up just short.
However, he has had a lot of success there. In fact, in his very first race there, he finished in fifth, and in 18 races since then, he has eight top-10 finishes at the Alabama racetrack.
“I look forward to going down there. Talladega’s always kind of been a little bit of a home race. It’s just really close to where we live, so that’s always super nice,” Elliott, the Dawsonville, Georgia, native said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital. “A race you can drive to easily, the fans have always been really good to me over there, which makes it fun and kind of feel like home.”
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Chase Elliott looks on during driver introductions before the NASCAR Daytona 500 auto race at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
Talladega is one of the premier NASCAR spots, understandably so.
“The craziness and chaos that is the infield is extremely well known for sure, just the party and the destination that it is,” Elliott said. “I don’t really think people necessarily care if the race is good or bad – I think people are just more there for the environment.”
“A lot of people do care about what the race is, but I think people go for the experience a lot of times and stick around for hopefully a good race on Sunday too. And fortunately, that really hasn’t been an issue at Talladega. A lot of times, the race on Sunday delivers and everybody comes in for an entertaining weekend with their friends, and a cherry on top is a good finish on Sunday afternoon. It’s a good place to get a little bit of both.”
A fifth-place finish is hardly something to ignore – it was his third top-five this season, and he also has six top-10s.
Chase Elliott greets fans during driver introductions before the NASCAR Daytona 500 auto race at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 19, 2023 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Terry Renna, File)
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However, he also has two 15th-place finishes and a 20th place on the record this year and is still without a win this year. So, despite being in fourth place in the Cup Series standings right now, Elliott thinks his season has been just “OK.”
“There’s been some high spots, good finishes on weeks we didn’t deserve them, and bad finishes on weeks where we probably deserved to have better. There’s been flat out bad weeks, and flat out good weeks, too. Unfortunately, not good enough to win, but there have been a couple scenarios where we were in the mix,” Elliott said.
“We’ve been all over the board, certainly not the level of consistency I’d like to see. But a lot of room for improvement. That first stretch was a warmup, and now we go straight all the way to the championship in November. A lot of races ahead, a lot of time to get it together or not. It depends on how we execute the next few months.”
Elliott won the Cup Series title, his lone championship, in 2020 – his best finish since then is fourth, which he had both in 2021 and 2022 before following up with a 17th-place finish in 2023, and then seventh last year.
Of course, it’s not easy to come out on top every year, but in order to do it, “we need to find some consistency.”
Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on June 26, 2022 in Lebanon, Tennessee. (Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
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“We had a legitimate shot to win the race in Martinsville, go to Bristol and very much not in the mix,” Elliott said (he finished fourth and 15th in those races, respectively). “Just trying to be more consistent across the board and have that type of performance when we are capable of winning more often and do it at different racetrack types and sizes and venues and just get the momentum going in the right direction. It’s been a little spotty, so we got to get it going here. I think we can, just gotta keep trucking.”
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