Hendrick Motorsports entered the 2026 season with quite a bit of optimism. There was a revamped Chevrolet body aimed at improving speed, along with a return to the Chase playoff format, which awards consistency. And if we go by that parameter, then nobody in the sport has been any better than Chase Elliott and the No. 9 team, at least in the Next Gen era. After all, his average finish of 12.4 during that timeframe (2022–present) is the best among all full-time drivers. And that is the same sentiment shared by two NASCAR analysts.

Chase Elliott’s future looks bright

Renowned NASCAR experts Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi sat down to discuss the ongoing events in the sport days before the Great American Race. While speaking about NASCAR, they picked on Chase Elliott and discussed how the change in format can alter the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s fortune.

“Elliot is amongst, if not leading, the series in average finish. This format is going to really allow him to just showcase what he does so well. And I would not at all be surprised if Elliott is very much in the championship mix throughout the year,” Bianchi said on The Teardown podcast, speaking about Elliott’s consistency throughout the last few years.

Following this, Gluck mentioned how Elliott can be a championship contender this season with the return of the Chase format, a system that rewards consistency. Here’s what he added:

“I think he will be. He was second in average finish last year to Christopher Bell. I think he is a driver who can really take advantage of that. And I think it will change the way people look at him. ‘Oh, he’s not winning races. He’s not doing this. Well, he’s up there in points, contending for the championship.’ So, I think that benefits him.”

News served to you like never before!

Prefer us on Google, To get latest news on feed

Prefer Us on Google

A quick glance at the last two seasons in the Cup Series will tell you that Chase Elliott has been the most consistent. For the most part, the 30-year-old’s bad days end in P15 finishes, and he has two or three DNFs scattered throughout the season. That could benefit him in the Chase format.

And the real benefit might come when those P12, P15, P18 finishes start to rack up on the bad days, and the P8, P5, P2, P1 finishes will fill in the gaps. NASCAR has reinstated a 10-race Chase playoff for the top 16 after 26 regular-season races. The new format makes use of cumulative points across 10 playoff races, not one season finale.

In 2025, Elliott won the Clash and two points races, Atlanta and Kansas. He finished eighth in the standings with 2,310 points, with a steady string of top-10 and top-five finishes that were often overshadowed by inconsistency elsewhere. His high finishes came at Dover, Martinsville, and Sonoma. And if it shows anything, then it is that Elliott’s visibility was evident, even when he wasn’t dominant.

To top this, he boasts an average finish of 12.61, which is just short of Christopher Bell’s 11.2. He has an average start of 16.1 and has led a total of 454 laps. He even cemented his status as NASCAR’s most popular driver by winning the NMPA Most Popular Driver Award for the eighth consecutive year in 2025. Despite all this, fans called him out for his inconsistency.

As NASCAR brought back the Chase format in 2026, analysts expect Elliott to use this to his advantage and turn things around, something former NASCAR star Kevin Harvick also believes in.

Kevin Harvick puts Chase Elliott among championship contenders

As NASCAR changed the format, Kevin Harvick named the drivers who could benefit from it. Naming a handful of drivers such as Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, and William Byron, the NASCAR Hall of Famer also included Elliott.

“Chase Elliott, when you look at his stats, they’re finishers. They’re old school racers, and I think that style of racing is going to matter to be able to gather all those points,” Harvick said in the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast.

The playoff format, the ‘win and you’re in’ format specifically, rewarded wins mostly and turned out to be a hard nut to crack for Elliott. Even though he won the 2020 Cup Series championship, Elliott’s effort barely received any reward despite being one of the most consistent drivers on the grid.

In the Next Gen era, Elliott’s 10 DNFs are the fewest of any driver to have run full-time in all four of those years, and his 115 top-20 finishes are also the most.

He was the 2022 regular-season champion and the second most consistent driver in 2025 after Christopher Bell. Despite this, Elliott had to finish the season in eighth place, something the Hendrick Motorsports star would want to avoid this season.