It’s no secret that the in-season tournament has flown under the radar. Kyle Larson even admitted, “I just really haven’t seen anything promoted about it, so I think it’s easy to forget about it.” So, should it come as a big surprise that Chase Elliott didn’t know much about it? The Hendrick Motorsports driver has always given off somewhat of a ‘detached’ demeanor. While that has won over the hearts of a large section of the fanbase, Denny Hamlin doesn’t believe that the persona is just for the cameras.

The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran now believes Elliott was, in fact, blissfully unaware of the $1 million prize money for the in-season tournament, despite the five-race event starting from next week at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Here’s what Denny Hamlin had to say about Chase Elliott’s mentality toward the in-season tournament.

Denny Hamlin has changed his views about Elliott

For the very first time, NASCAR is spicing up the end of the regular season with a mini in-season tournament. Since it’s the first year, there is plenty of confusion regarding the rules and seeding process, with a few drivers avoiding news about it entirely. Chase Elliott is one of them, as he admitted to The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck about not being aware of the prize money.

Gluck reported on X on Saturday, “Chase Elliott in Pocono this morning said he hasn’t paid any attention to the in-season tournament and asked if the winner gets anything. He was told the winner gets $1 million, and it seemed that was news to him, and he said he would like to win it.” Well, now that he knows the prize money is $1 million, the Hendrick Motorsports driver is eager to be in contention right until the end at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Sharing his thoughts on Elliott’s lack of awareness, Denny Hamlin said on the Actions Detrimental podcast, “I found it very odd that Chase Elliott didn’t know anything about it… I thought before with Chase Elliott that he just kind of underplays everything. I used to think he’s saying he doesn’t know this or the other, I think he does, but he’s just underselling it, so he doesn’t talk about it. I don’t believe that anymore. I believe that when he gets out of the car on Sunday, he completely tunes out anything racing other than his team stuff. You know, doing the work he needs to do with his team. I believe it.”

Chase Elliott’s fifth-place finish at Pocono Raceway moved him to fifth in the seeding for the in-season tournament. He will be going head-to-head with Austin Dillon at the newly named Echopark Speedway in Atlanta during the 2025 Quaker State 400. The winner will either face John Hunter Nemechek or Josh Berry in Chicago. The No. 9 Chevy driver will have a point to prove, having not entered Victory Lane since April 2024, but now that momentum is on his side after two consecutive top-five results, the Georgia native will aim to hit the ground running.

Meanwhile, Hamlin feels that, unlike some of the other drivers in the garage, Elliott has the unique ability to simply disconnect from the sport after Sunday’s Cup Series races. He said, “He unplugs is what I believe. Because he was like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on. I think I heard something about the tournament. What do you get? A million. Huh. That sounds cool’.” Could he go on to salvage his season by winning the million-dollar cash prize? Time will tell. But the 2020 championship winner will want to get back to Victory Lane before the playoffs are underway.

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Elliott looks back on what went wrong at Pocono Raceway

Time is ticking for Chase Elliott. The Hendrick Motorsports driver is currently in the middle of a 40+ race winless streak. And while it’s likely he will point his way into the playoffs, the situation is less than ideal for the No. 9 driver. Despite starting 18th, Elliott made up 10 places in Sunday’s race by the end of Stage 1 and even reached the top three by the end of Stage 2. However, he eventually fell back to fifth after being overtaken by Ryan Blaney on Lap 115 at the ‘Tricky Triangle’.

Looking back at the result, Elliott said after the race, “We were just right there, you know, right one little adjustment away from being right with Ryan and Denny. I feel like it’s all well within reach. We just got to piece it all together at the same time.” Reflecting on what went wrong, he went on to say, “We were just really loose in (turn) three. I felt like I could pace pretty good through turns one and two, but I just could not get turn three right all day. Certainly, as the run went on, it became more challenging for me, and I started making more and more mistakes over there.”

It was a decent result for Chase Elliott, who secured his fourth consecutive top-10 finish at Pocono Raceway. Despite suffering from handling issues, he overcame all odds to end up just behind Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney. Now he’ll shift his attention to Echopark Speedway, hoping to carry on the momentum at a venue where he ended up 20th earlier this year. Could he finally secure a win at the 1.54-mile quad-oval?

Well, if he can’t, then there’s no reason to frown, since the upcoming schedule boasts a few road courses where Elliott has excelled so far this season. Over the next 7 weeks, NASCAR will travel to two road courses and one street course! Elliott surged to finish 4th at the Circuit of the Americas earlier this year and put in a strong performance at Mexico City to finish third, so let’s look at what we can expect in the coming weeks!

First, we have the Chicago Street Race on July 6th, where Elliott placed 3rd in 2023. Then, we move to Sonoma the very next week, where Elliott has four top-5 finishes in 8 races, including 3 top-5s in his last four races at the track! Lastly, we have Watkins Glen on August 10th as the final road course of the regular season. And while the #9 finished outside the top-15 in his last two races there, he also boasts two wins at the track, in 2018 and 2019, along with two more top-5 finishes in 2021 and 2022.

With recent road course form and Elliott’s unmatched consistency, don’t be surprised if he finally breaks his duck and reclaims his road course crown in this summer stretch. So, what do you think of Chase Elliott’s season so far? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!