Despite consistent season, Chase Elliott leaving more to be desired in 2025

The mood surrounding Chase Elliott and the No. 9 team just seems a bit off. 

A team that has five top-10 finishes over the first eight races and sits fourth in the NASCAR Cup Series standings would usually be labeled as a championship threat, but that's not exactly the case for Elliott. 

The truth is that, ever since his leg injury early in 2023, Elliott and the No. 9 team haven't been themselves. Sure, Elliott's been extremely consistent — he's yet to finish outside of the top 20 this season and had 19 top-20 finishes in a row to start 2024 — but that consistency has only translated into a single win at Texas in April 2024. Following his injury in 2023, Elliott missed the playoffs in a season that included him being suspended after intentionally wrecking Denny Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600. 

There's a noticeable lack of race-winning speed from the No. 9 team, which won 18 races from 2018 to 2022. That included a pair of five-win campaigns in 2020 — the year in which Elliott won the Cup Series championship — and 2022, which marked the third consecutive season in which Elliott made the Championship 4. 

Elliott's 2024 numbers didn't deviate all that much from his 2022 numbers, aside from the win column. In 2024, Elliott had 11 top-fives compared to 12 in 2022, while he scored 19 top-10 finishes in 2024 compared to 20 in 2022. 

Eight races into 2025, Elliott is in a similar position to where he was eight races into 2024. The comparison between his first eight races of 2024 and 2025 is shown below: 

While Elliott has been slightly better this season, his 2025 campaign has followed a similar script: A few races where he hangs on for a top-20, a race or two where he runs inside the top 10 for much of the day and a standout race at Martinsville, where he led 64 laps and finished third in 2024 and finished fourth in 2025. 

Elliott's consistency shouldn't be disregarded. Being fourth in points and almost ensured a top-20 or top-15 finish, barring a crash, isn't a bad spot to be in at all. But for a team and a driver who, at one point, made three consecutive Championship 4 appearances and won a slew of races, it's not close to what they can be at their peak. 

Currently, the No. 9 team is in a tier that every team except Hendrick Motorsports would be thrilled to be in: good, but not elite. 

The good news for Elliott in regards to statistics? In 2024, it was the ninth race of the season at Texas that brought him his only victory of the season. Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol is the ninth race of 2025, and Elliott finished eighth and second in the two Bristol races a year ago.