Chad Knaus comments on Chase Elliott's title outlook amid historic start

One gripe many have had with Elliott since his 2020 championship season has been his subpar qualifying results and lack of time at the front. Just last season, Elliott had an average starting position of 16.1 and has been held under 500 laps led each of the last four seasons.

His biggest strength has been consistency, even when he may not have the car or the setup to be near the front the majority of the race. In a revamped championship format that brings consistency back to the forefront a little more, Elliott was viewed as someone who could excel.

While his 196 laps led are nowhere near series leaders Kyle Larson (499) and Denny Hamlin (624), Elliott has had more of that raw speed on multiple types of tracks that makes his start to the season something worth monitoring. After all, his pit crew has been lights-out, and Knaus views the entire team as having everything it needs to be a championship contender.

“That team is a very rock-steady team,” Knaus said. “They find themselves toward the front, usually toward the end of the races. They’re usually able to grind it out if they have a bad qualifying effort. They’re able to grind it out if they have a mishap and things don’t go quite right on the racetrack at some point throughout the course of the race. So, they’re championship contenders in every right of the word.”

While other drivers are stringing poor results together or beating themselves on the track, Elliott continues to go about his business and hit the ball down the fairway. That could especially suit him well when the 16-driver Chase field is reset for the final 10 races, and wins alone will not guarantee anyone success if the consistency does not match.