Chase Elliott is finally looking forward to getting into a groove in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Four races have been run this season. However, there were several wild card-type tracks, including the first two races of the year at drafting-style tracks at Daytona and Atlanta, as well as a road course at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
The NASCAR Cup Series makes its first of two stops in Las Vegas this week, with the race marking the first 1 ½-mile race of the year for the series.
The Pennzoil 400 is Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with the green flag flying just after 1 p.m. On track action begins Saturday with practice and qualifying.
“Hopefully, Vegas is a good step and then from there we can just dig our heels in and get rolling,” Elliott, 30, said. “You answer a lot of questions over the course of the next two weeks that we have internally of where we’re at.”
Elliott, driving the No. 9 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, is fourth in the Cup Series point standings. He is 97 points behind points leader Tyler Reddick. Elliott has two top 10 finishes, including a fourth-place run in the Daytona 500.
At Phoenix last week, Elliott qualified 26th and managed to race into the top 10. But his car suffered damage in a late incident and finished 23rd.
“Not the greatest start. I think we have a lot of work to do, so we’ll see,” Elliott said. “It’s a marathon and you can change narratives fast. One good week can certainly go a long way. Hopefully, that’s this week at Vegas.”
‘Asking a lot of the car’
Elliott and the rest of his Chevrolet teammates are working through a new body on the Camaro ZL1 Cup Series car. The changes were aimed to enhance the car’s aerodynamic performance.
Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion, said Las Vegas will be a “good test” for the car with the high speeds at the track.
“We’re going to be asking a lot of the car … How can we make that thing more efficient and also just adjust and figure out what our car balance needs to make it go? That’s really No. 1 (priority) for everyone right now,” Elliott said.
Las Vegas hasn’t been the strongest track for Elliott. He has six top-10 finishes with an 18.9 average finish in 17 starts at the track.
“The big one out there is getting through (Turns 3 and 4),” Elliott said of the unique challenges of LVMS. “It seems like (Turns 1 and 2), a lot of people can muscle their way through there with the way the backing picks up, but the way the corner is shaped in 3 and 4, it’s really important to have the balance good on that end of the track.”
Another wild card of Las Vegas is the weather. Air temperatures will be in the 80s by green flag time with cloudy conditions.
“That can be challenging (to find the right balance) when the sun’s out and it’s warm,” said Elliott, the son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott.
New playoff format
The biggest offseason change in NASCAR was to its playoff format. Gone is the win-and-in format that locked in a driver into the playoffs by winning a race during the regular season.
The top 16 drivers in the regular season point standings qualify for the playoffs, regardless of if they are race winners. The playoffs will be 10 races with the driver at the top of the point standings at the end being crowned the champion and no elimination rounds.
Las Vegas hosts a playoff race on Oct. 4. Elliott said thus far, he hasn’t noticed a difference in racing with the new playoff format.
“It just depends (on the situation) and people are going to adjust and race differently at different times depending upon the situation that they’re in,” Elliott said.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
Up next
What: NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400
When: 1 p.m. Sunday
Where: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
TV: FS1
Favorite: Kyle Larson +450
