Training sessions on the road are usually Chase Elliott’s strength Chase Elliott waits on the grid before the NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway on July 10, 2022. | James Gilbert / Getty Images The first thing to note about Chase Elliott building a fairly comfortable lead in points more than two-thirds of the way through the regular season is that he did so without taking advantage of his strength. seven his 13 career wins NASCAR Cup Series The season’s entry came in road laps, but the three wins in 2022 were on the oval.
In three training sessions on the road this year, Elliott put 26The tenth in Fontana, eighth in Sonoma, and second in Rhode America. Oddly enough, the three drivers who rode in Victory Lane were all first-time winners of the Cup Series. While they were making the headlines, Elliott was picking up some race points and seven stage points, but no stage wins counted toward the playoff standings.
The odds are strongly that that will change in the upcoming road courses at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Watkins Glen. Winning one of the two will boost your Season Points and Playoff Points.
Chase Elliott is way ahead of him at this point in 2020
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Chase Elliott went to the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series qualifiers as the seventh in regular season points. Kevin Harvick (seven) and Denny Hamlin (six) combined for 13 regular season wins and started the playoffs with 42 and 27 points, respectively. By comparison, Elliott won two races and earned just 16 points in the playoffs. He didn’t capture the points lead until the Martinsville race, the final pre-Championship 4 competition.
Through 19 races that season, Elliott finished fifth in points and fell behind leader Hamlin in playoff points, 28-10. He took another win along his stretch but lost quite a bit of ground along the way despite six top-10 performances in the last seven races before qualifying.
Elliott was similarly strong last year, with six more results in the top ten. If he repeats this summer, he should finish the regular season easily with a minimum of another 20 break points, giving him at least 40 points.
Recent results, including two wins in the last three races, bode well for Elliott.
Atlanta was cute with Dawsonville’s favorite son
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Being from Dawsonville, Georgia, Chase Elliott considers Atlanta Motor Speedway to be his home track. This weekend, there was no place like home. Elliott won the first two stages and the race, and racked up his maximum breakout points on the day.
The seven points raised his total to 20, which ultimately led to the separation of the four drivers who had two wins each. If he gets a 40-point playoff after the summer Daytona race, Elliott could have a 20-point lead over everyone else on the field.
This will be a huge step towards achieving the first two conversions.
Here’s what the current score picture looks like:
Rank
driver
points
wins the race
Stage wins
break points
top 5
Top 10
1
Chase Elliot
684
3
5
20
6
13
2
Ryan Blaney
637
0
5
5
7
10
3
Ross Chastain
634
2
3
13
10
13
4
Kyle Larson
579
1
2
7
8
10
5
Kyle Bush
569
1
1
6
6
11
6
Martin Truex Jr.
566
0
5
5
2
7
7
Joey Logano
562
2
2
12
5
8
8
Christopher Bell
523
0
0
0
4
10
9
Alex Bowman
508
1
1
6
3
9
10
William Byron
505
2
3
13
4
5
11
Kevin Harvick
504
0
0
0
4
10
12
Eric Almerola
481
0
0
0
2
6
13
Austin Cendrick
465
1
1
6
3
6
14
Tyler Riddick
458
1
2
7
5
7
15th
Daniel Suarez
451
1
2
7
4
7
16
Kurt Busch
449
1
2
7
5
7
Rank
driver
points
wins the race
Stage wins
break points
top 5
Top 10
17
Eric Jones
447
0
0
0
2
6
18
Chase Brisco
443
1
2
7
3
4
19
Denny Hamlin
409
2
2
12
3
4
20
Austin Dillon
407
0
0
0
3
6
21
Michael McDowell
406
0
0
0
1
7
22
Justin Haley
374
0
0
0
1
2
23
Chris Bucher
360
0
0
0
1
5
24
Bubba Wallace
345
0
1
1
1
2
25
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
333
0
0
0
1
5
26
Cole Custer
323
0
0
0
0
1
27
Ty Dillon
310
0
0
0
0
1
Rank
driver
points
wins the race
Stage wins
break points
top 5
Top 10
28
Harrison Burton
308
0
0
0
0
1
29
Todd Gilliland
284
0
0
0
0
0
30
Brad Kiselowski
266
0
0
-10
0
2
31
Corey Lagoy
222
0
0
0
1
1
32
kodi ware
148
0
0
0
0
0
33
David Rajan
61
0
0
0
0
1
34
joy hand
44
0
0
0
0
0
35
Greg Bevel
24
0
0
0
0
0
36
Jacques Villeneuve
15th
0
0
0
0
0
37
Boris Said
11
0
0
0
0
0
38
Kyle Tilly
7
0
0
0
0
0
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