Posted October 12, 2022 by Dominic Aragon Cup

Chase Elliott: Round of 8 will be ‘really tough’

Entering the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, 2020 champion Chase Elliott starts the round as the first seed with a 31-point advantage over the cutline.

In the last six seasons, Elliott has been a championship-eligible driver in the Round of 8 and has advanced to the Championship 4 twice – in 2020 and 2021.

Still, Elliott acknowledges that this Round of 8 — consisting of Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami and Martinsville — will be a “really tough round.”

“Vegas was a struggle for us in the spring,” Elliott said. “Homestead, we’ve just been really hit-or-miss there. We did have a test there a couple of weeks ago, so hopefully, we’ve learned from that.”

He also added, “Martinsville, it’s just going to be about how you qualify because I don’t see anybody passing there. We’ll see how it goes.”

Martinsville is the only Round of 8 track where Elliott, an 18-time Cup winner, has won.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver’s best finishes at Las Vegas and Homestead-Miami are second-place finishes, one time each.

Elliott didn’t earn any playoff points last week at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, but his 31 total playoff points earned in races this season — between five race victories and six stage wins — is the most among the competition.

“Try to bring our A-game,” Elliott said of the Round of 8. “It would have been nice to have some more points from (Charlotte), but we didn’t and we’ll try again out in Las Vegas.”