Chase Elliott having championship-caliber season after disappointing 2023

To say Chase Elliott's 2023 season was disappointing is an understatement. 

The 2020 Cup Series champion suffered a leg injury in March, was suspended in May and missed the Cup Series playoffs altogether after missing seven races in total. 

2024, however, has been a different tale. Elliott has the best average finish in the Cup Series at 9.1, and has yet to finish outside of the top 20 through the first 17 races of the season. Elliott won his first race since October 2022 at Texas in April, but his consistency has been almost as impressive as his victory in the Lone Star State. 

Elliott only put together one top-10 effort through the first six races of the season, but has eight top-10's in the last 11 Cup Series events, including seven top-fives. Sunday's race at Iowa brought a third-place finish for Elliott, in which the No. 9 car progressively got better as the night went on. 

While Elliott wasn't bad when he was on track in 2023, the No. 9 team as a whole seemed to be a shell of their 2022 form, where they won five races and made the Championship Four. Several uncharacteristic mistakes - including Elliott intentionally crashing Denny Hamlin at Charlotte and poor math on the part of crew chief Alan Gustafson running Elliott out of fuel at Watkins Glen - made for a 2023 season in which the No. 9 team never was truly in contention for race wins. 

Compare that to 2024, where despite just winning one race, the No. 9 team has been in contention more often than not. At Kansas, Elliott had a front-row seat for the closest finish in Cup Series history, while a fourth-place finish at Sonoma made for Elliott's best road-course run over the last two seasons. 

The No. 9 team may not be winning in bunches yet, but the wins will come if Elliott continues to put himself in position. Look for Elliott to be one of the favorites at both Nashville - where he won in 2022 - and the Chicago Street Race, where he finished third a year ago. 

After an extremely disappointing 2023, Elliott has proven that he and the No. 9 team are still championship caliber. Once the postseason rolls around in September, we'll be able to really see how strong the No. 9 team is.