Chase Elliott recently spoke about the state of his season so far in 2024. After the race at Iowa, Elliott became the points leader in a campaign and also registered the best average finish of his career to date.
After getting the pole at New Hampshire on Saturday, Elliott was asked by the media to share his thoughts on him being the points leader and 'getting back in the groove', to which Elliot replied:
"I feel that our team has been in a good spot, really all year. To be honest, I’ve been super happy with where we’re at; really happy with everything, in general, top to bottom. I feel like we’re all in a good place. I feel like I’m in a good spot with what I’m looking for in the car. I feel like Alan (Gustafson) is in a good place with knowing how to give me some of those things. I think that for us, we’ve just got to continue to keep working down those paths. We’d like to have a couple more wins than we have right now," Elliott said [at 1:35].
Speaking further, Chase Elliott emphasized stringing together good finishes and maintaining consistency on track to get more opportunities (to win).
"I don’t feel any different about that now. I think we just have to keep doing what we’re doing," he added.
"We’d rather have an actual pole": Chase Elliott would've preferred winning pole the traditional way at NHMS
Ahead of the on-track action on Saturday at New Hampshire, NASCAR was forced to call off the Cup qualifying because of rain. This meant that points leader Chase Elliott was automatically awarded the pole position.
However, while speaking to the media after the race was called off, Elliott claimed that he would have preferred to win the pole the traditional way. Speaking via NASCAR, Elliot said:
"We’d rather have an actual pole, for sure. But you know, circumstances being what they are, fortunately our team has been performing at a really solid level over the past couple of months. The reality of it is that it put us in a position to have a good starting spot for a rainout situation. That’s just the reality of the weekend."
Elliott mentioned that the #9 team would take a good starting spot and "more importantly", a really good spot on the pit road.
So far this season, Chase Elliott has one race win to his name along with 6 finishes inside the top 5. At New Hampshire, given he's starting from the pole, the Hendrick Motorsports driver would hope to get his second win of the season and extend his lead at the top in a bid to win the regular season championship.