“No Money Was Paid”- Chase Elliott’s Winless Streak Branded “Unacceptable” as Insider Slams Cup Series Decline

Hendrick Motorsports is undoubtedly one of the best teams in NASCAR and one of the most successful. However, in recent years, it seems that only two of its four drivers have been preserving that reputation. While William Byron and Kyle Larson are performing up to the mark, much has been said about Alex Bowman. The #48 driver has generally been perceived as the weakest of the bunch, but there is another elephant in the room, Chase Elliott, whose recent slump is indeed alarming.

Ever since he clinched the 2020 NASCAR Cup title, Elliott has been decently competitive. All of that changed in 2023, when everything began spiraling out of control from then on. Part of it was his fault, as he got injured in a snowboarding accident, putting him out for a few races. He did not help his own cause when he copped a one-race suspension for intentionally wrecking Denny Hamlin at Charlotte, and went winless the entire year.

Elliott’s loyalists can rave behind his back all they want about that Texas win last year, but one win in almost three years’ worth of races is a mediocre statistic. There are just 11 races left in the regular season, and NASCAR’s most popular driver is yet to post his first win of 2025. And this slump has got NASCAR insiders worried about his performance.

Sirius XM NASCAR host, Davey Segal, shared his take on Chase Elliott’s lack of wins, stating, “It’s been over a year, and it feels for Chase Elliott fans, like it’s been way longer than that. I know that he did win the Clash and there was all the warm and fuzzies that came along with that. They kicked everybody’s tail that night, but that was a pre-season race, that was an exhibition race. No money was paid, no points were paid figuratively and literally.” 

While he was up in spirits and pumped after the win at Bowman Gray Stadium, that winning form hasn’t translated to wins where it matters the most. Three top 5s and four top 10s see him hold a fifth position in the points standings. But for how long? At a time when his teammates, Byron and Larson, are racking up playoff points and wins, Elliott is looking to make the most out of the race. The likes of Josh Berry and Bubba Wallace have more playoff points than the HMS star driver, who has a total of 0 points to his name. Segal even went on to question whether the #9 team is content being a mid-pack team.

“There’s not a lot of good going on for Chase Elliott right now in the #9 team. Now I say all that, and Tino and Doug, you brought up good points, he’s still 5th in the points standings. If you take away all the guys in front of him that have won a race, and he’s running okay, but when you’re in a Hendrick car. When you’re a past champion of the sport, running okay is not the norm, that’s not acceptable,” Segal added.

Things could have been different had the #9 pit crew not dropped the ball in Kansas. Elliott was leading the race, and a caution forced him to pit, where he lost not only his lead but track position, eventually settling for a 15th-place finish. However, that is just one race out of 15 regular-season outings, and with a tricky patch of road course races hitting up, how long will Elliott maintain his points advantage? Every new winner will push him down the ladder, and unless and until he wins a race, his qualification for the playoffs isn’t secured.

Well, things aren’t going to get any easier this weekend in Mexico City. Apart from battling it out against road course ringers like SVG, Tyler Reddick, A. J. Allmendinger, and Chris Buescher, NASCAR has added another layer of difficulty for the mega international event.

NASCAR will enforce track limits in Mexico

Earlier in the season, NASCAR attempted to enforce the track limits at COTA with 400lb barriers, but drivers were not amused by it, and they had to be removed. With stock car drivers not trained to stay within the limits on the twists and turns, NASCAR has opted to make tweaks at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit. Not just tire barriers, but the cameras are going to be stationed to monitor the drivers and their footprint on the racetrack.

Elliott shared his take on the track limits stating that all drivers are going to push for every inch of advantage and they are going to tread a fine line. “I think everyone’s going to be super aggressive with every advantage that you can take and probably stepping over that line. And if you get caught, you’ll get caught and you’ll learn what you can do and can’t. So my intention is to go and push the limits as far as I can push them. I’ll probably step over them at different points in time. And I want to be sure, what’s going to be called and what wasn’t.”

Well, the HMS driver isn’t going to back down and is likely to learn more about track limits during the practice run. That is where he can experiment and go all out, as a penalty during the race could be detrimental to his playoffs hopes.