After Martinsville victory, Chase Elliott says the pressure isn't off No. 9 team

There's an inherent pressure to win for NASCAR's most popular driver, even if that pressure is unbeknownst to said driver. 

Chase Elliott, like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bill Elliott, Bobby Allison and Richard Petty before him, has the same kind of pressure on his shoulders. It's the kind of pressure that superstars in every sport deal with. 

But Elliott's win in the last NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway on March 29 didn't take any pressure off of the 2020 Cup Series champion, according to the man himself. 

"It's not like, 'Okay, we got a win, pressure's off,'" Elliott said Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway. "That's not how I've looked at it. I've looked at it with, honestly, some excitement from the standpoint of, we have a longer runway to build on a win."

"I think for us, we've gotten to the last 10, 15 weeks of the year before and had to perform at an extreme level and kind of catch up in some regards. I think when you're able to bank a win early, you're able to have a longer runway to put good runs together and stack points."

Momentum on Chase Elliott's side going into Bristol

Elliott will start 18th in Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). 

Through the first seven races of 2026, Elliott is fourth in the Cup Series standings with four top 10 finishes. In 17 starts at Bristol, Elliott has nine top 10s and five top fives, including a pair of runner-up finishes in 2022 and 2024. 

Quotes provided by NASCAR Media.