Chase Elliott Reacts to Three-Race Slide With Blunt Honesty

Chase Elliott’s 2024 season was a comeback story after a brutal 2023, when a broken leg from a snowboarding accident and a one-race suspension knocked him out of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs for the first time in his career. Elliott bounced back with a win at Texas in April 2024, ending a 42-race winless streak that had lingered since July 2022. But while the 2024 season steadied the ship, the 2025 season’s ship has been a bit shaky, particularly for the three recent races.

As the 2025 playoffs heat up, Elliott’s facing a new challenge, a three-race slide that’s got fans and analysts buzzing. In a recent chat, he got real about the No. 9 team’s struggles, laying it all out with the kind of straight talk that’s made him a fan favorite. As Gateway’s flat corners and chaotic restarts await, the No. 9 team’s got to dig deep to keep their championship hopes alive.

How is the No. 9 team feeling early in the playoffs?

When Josh Berry sat down with Chase Elliott on NASCAR Live Wide Open and asked how the No. 9 team was feeling early in the 2025 playoffs, Elliott didn’t dodge the question. “Yeah. Feel like it’s been solid. You know we have had a bad… just a bad stretch you know from bad run at Watkins Glen, obviously tough night at Richmond, and then just things… not really a bad night at Daytona, just things really did not go our way at all,” he said.

That’s classic Elliott, calling it like he sees it. And the numbers back him up. At Watkins Glen, a track where he’s a two-time winner with five top-two finishes in eight starts, Elliott stumbled. A mid-race mistake in the bus stop chicane tanked his day, leaving him outside the top 20, a rare miss for a guy known as a road-course king. “That was just on me,” he admitted afterward, owning the error that cost him a shot at recovery.

Richmond’s Cook Out 400 was even uglier. A slow pit stop in Stage 2 buried him in traffic, and a run-in with Austin Cindric forced an unscheduled stop for a tire rub, relegating him to a deep finish, his worst short-track result since early 2024. Hendrick’s VP Jeff Andrews summed it up, “We just put ourselves behind, and at Richmond you can’t do that.” But the Daytona’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 showed promise.

Elliott led laps in Stage 2 and ran up front most of the night, but a late restart left him hung out without drafting help, dropping him just shy of a top-five. “Things really did not go our way at all,” he said, and it’s hard to argue when luck and execution both went sideways.

Still, Elliott leaned on his bond with crew chief Alan Gustafson, saying, “I think, you know, you said it, just having that experience and knowing each other as well as we do. I think it makes our jobs easier. Just from the standpoint of I know what’s expected, he knows what’s expected, and we can just keep our heads down and go to work. That’s what we’re going to do and keep it simple.” That’s no small thing.

Elliott and Gustafson have been together since 2016, racking up 19 Cup wins and a 2020 title. Gustafson’s take earlier this year nailed it, “Chase doesn’t need a pep talk. He needs a car capable of winning, and when he has that, he’ll deliver.” With their decade-long partnership, the No. 9 team’s got the foundation to climb out of this rut, but Gateway’s no easy fix.

No. 9 team faces Gateway without key ally

The 2025 playoffs haven’t been kind to Hendrick Motorsports, and the Enjoy Illinois 300 at Gateway is shaping up as a do-or-die moment for Chase Elliott and the No. 9 team. After a brutal Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington, where none of Hendrick’s four drivers cracked the top 16, Elliott’s 17th-place finish was the team’s best of the night, a grim stat for a squad used to running up front. Sitting just nine points above the Round of 12 cutoff, Elliott needs a big rebound at Gateway, a track that’s been his personal kryptonite.

In his two prior starts there, he’s managed only a 21st and a 13th, with zero laps led and no top-10s, the only Cup Series track where he’s never broken through. To make matters trickier, he’ll tackle Gateway without his usual spotter, Tyler Poole, who’s stepping away for baby watch. Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass reported that Tyler Deering, who’s worked with Elliott as an extra spotter on road courses this year, will step in. Deering’s also pulling double duty as the spotter for the No. 32 Xfinity Series car, adding a layer of complexity to an already high-stakes weekend.

Hendrick’s Darlington disaster exposed cracks. Crew chief Rudy Fugle didn’t hold back, saying over the radio, “We’re embarrassed… we’ve got to improve and get better, race their ass off every week or else it will be a long offseason.” For Elliott, Gateway’s a chance to shake that 17th-place finish and his three-race slide, but it’s also a test of adaptability with a new voice in his ear. Deering’s familiarity with the No. 9 team helps, but Gateway’s flat corners and restart chaos demand precision.

Elliott’s consistency, top-20 finishes in all 17 races before the playoffs, shows he’s got the chops to grind it out. But as Kevin Harvick noted on his Happy Hour podcast, Hendrick’s struggles at Darlington and lack of speed at Gateway could spell trouble. With the No. 9 team swapping rear tire changers earlier this year after a botched Kansas pit stop, they’ve shown they’re willing to shake things up.