Chase Elliott makes his feelings known about the current NASCAR gen-7 cars

While Chase Elliott enjoyed a strong start when the NASCAR Gen-7 car was first introduced, the driver has not had the same luck in the last two years. Elliott admitted he's still adapting to the car despite driving it for quite some time now.

Elliott is a 29-year-old NASCAR Cup Series driver under Hendrick Motorsports. Driving the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro, the Dawsonville native won six times in the Gen-7 era, almost half less than teammates Kyle Larson and William Byron.

According to the HMS driver, he has improved a lot since the Gen-7 cars were introduced, though he still needs time to figure out "what it likes."

"I think my understanding of it is certainly higher than it's been probably been since it was introduced," Elliott said to Hendrickmotorsports.com.

"Does that mean it's perfect? No. Does that mean I know everything about it? No, it definitely doesn't. But I think that as you just keep progressing through these years with this thing and trying to figure out what it likes, " he added.

The 2020 NASCAR champion continued by saying he felt HMS could "destroy everyone on a weekly basis" in the Gen-7 era. However, he believed the team should push more to produce better race results.

"I think it just goes to show you that everyone is taking those steps as well, and it's about bettering yourself and just continuing to try to push that limit a little bit," Elliott said.

Chase Elliott mentioned that the team understands how the Gen-7 car drives around different styles of tracks better. If it turns out false, the driver said they will "keep trucking."

Chase Elliott's last win was the 2024 Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 - Source: Imagn

When NASCAR introduced the Gen-7 cars in 2022, Chase Elliott won five races in the No. 9 Chevy. Since then, the driver has struggled to park his car on victory lane again.

Elliott was winless in 2023, though a huge part of it was missing seven races due to injury from a snowboarding accident and a one-race suspension.

The driver snapped a 42-race winless streak at Texas Motor Speedway last year. The Texas race was his only win in the 2024 season, while teammates Kyle Larson and William Byron had six and three victories, respectively.

The 2025 NASCAR season will be the fourth year Elliott drives the No. 9 Gen-7 HMS Chevrolet. The season will begin in the Daytona 500 on February 16.

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Chase Elliott won seventh Most Popular Driver award

After the 2024 season, Chase Elliott won the Most Popular Driver award for the seventh time in his Cup career. He paid tribute to his family for winning the MPD award, including his father Bill Elliott who won the award 16 times.

In an X (formerly Twitter) post by NASCAR reporter Bob Pockrass, Elliott said:

“If you do have the honor to receive the award, I think it’s just representing that the right way, and by right way I mean by the way I think they would want to be represented. Really for me, that’s all I care about because they laid the foundation for me to be here and to have some of the opportunities that I’ve had throughout my career."

The Dawsonville native thanked the fans for supporting him and vowed to make them proud in the coming years.

Elliot has consecutively won the MPD award since Dale Earnhardt Jr. left the sport in 2017, with the latter winning 16 times (including one from the Xfinity Series). His father Bill owns the most MPD awards at the Cup level.