When a racing career is as spotless as Chase Elliott’s, it sometimes becomes easy to spot even the smallest of mistakes, and that is exactly what still holds back the No. 9 Chevy driver. While he describes his early years “fun,” there’s one story from his past he wishes would change.

“The hardest loss was having that Snowball Derby taken away […] that really sucked.”

Shortly before making his Cup Series debut, a young Elliott was racing in the Truck Series for Hendrick Motorsports. But at the same time, his racing interests spanned all across motorsports, and he ran the Snowball Derby in 2013, crossing the line first to win the grand event. This would have been his second victory after 2011, but the post-race inspection painted a different picture.

The ballast material in the car was made of tungsten. But instead, it should have been made of lead, as the regulations determined. As a result, he was disqualified from the event.

Although it has been well over a decade since that happened, and Elliott has proven himself in the Cup Series, with a championship win in 2020 and a very competitive overall performance, this is the one thing that he still can’t seem to move on from.

“I’d love to have that whole situation back; it could have very easily been avoided. Outside of that one, those were great years. And then really, the NASCAR thing started directly after that,” he told Jeff Gluck.

And he has the same answer when asked what’s the one thing he’d laugh about now, which was absolutely not funny at the time.

“The Snowball Derby thing — I say “laugh” lightly. A little. It still hurts. The way that whole thing went down. I can find some humor in it now, how easily it could have been avoided. Looking back, it’s a good lesson in listening to your dad.”

However, that one incident didn’t stop Elliott. He continued running the competition and won for a second time in 2015, becoming one of the only NASCAR drivers to win it multiple times.

While his NASCAR run has been quite successful so far in the past decade, there are quite a few changes taking place this season. And although Elliott has a clear idea of exactly what he needs to do, he might be lacking in terms of overall performance.

Chase Elliott on the 2026 season and title contention

Chevrolet has been struggling to win this season as the Toyota dominance continues, but it was Elliott who managed to bring the manufacturer and HMS their first win of the season at Martinsville. While this would have been enough to put him in a title contention up until last year, the picture has now massively changed. NASCAR is now following the Chase format, and it demands maximum consistency.

The drivers are trying to extract the most points out of every passing race, and even Elliott feels that is the only way to make themselves a strong contender this year.

“I mean, I think it’s pretty simple, really. You need to be able to win on almost a weekly basis. You need to be leading laps, winning races and doing all the things that champions do. That’s pretty simple to me,” he said, speaking to the media.

While it seems quite apparent to him and to the rest of the drivers, Chase Elliott isn’t exactly following up with this. Sure, he has been rather consistent, but so far, he has won only a single race. And considering the performance the Chevys have been delivering so far, it is tough to say if their drivers will be able to have a strong championship contention, especially considering how big a part of the field Toyota covers.