Chase Elliott looking to get back to championship form in 2026

Chase Elliott has been consistent throughout the last three NASCAR Cup Series seasons, but has yet to get back to the level of performance he was at from 2020-22. 

During those three years, Elliott made the Championship 4 three times, won the 2020 championship and went to victory lane 12 times. 

Elliott has won only one race and has not made the Championship 4, even missing the Cup Series playoffs altogether in 2023 after an early-season injury put him behind the eight ball. 

Elliott certainly hasn't been bad over the past three years, but with William Byron making the Championship 4 three years in a row and Kyle Larson winning the 2025 championship, the pressure to perform has ratcheted up for Elliott. 

Numbers don't lie

The aforementioned win total from 2020-22 and 2023-25 is the most telling statistic, but there are more numbers that represent Elliott's downturn in performance. 

Elliott is still able to finish near the front of the pack consistently, but he's not spending as much time there during races as he used to. He's also not starting as far towards the front as he used to: Elliott's average starting position was 17.3 when he missed the playoffs in 2023 and 16. 1 in 2025 compared to 9.0 in his 2020 championship season and his career-best mark of 8.1 in 2021 — both of which occurred in a COVID era of starting positions largely being based on performance in the previous race.

There's no reason for Elliott fans to panic, but if he and the No. 9 team don't seriously challenge for the title in 2026, it could be time for Hendrick Motorsports to consider shuffling some things around to rejuvenate NASCAR's most popular driver.