"I think it’s them" - Jeff Gordon backs Chase Elliott to win his second NASCAR title in 2024

Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon recently commented on Chase Elliott's chances heading into the NASCAR playoffs. The Vice President of NASCAR's winningest organization spoke about Elliott being an underdog, given the #9 team's consistency and the run of races coming up in the schedule.

So far this season, Elliott has one win to his name, at Texas, and only 6 finishes inside the top 5. These numbers are in contrast to his teammate Kyle Larson, who has 4 wins to his name and the same number of top 5 finishes as Elliott.

But what Elliott has that his teammate doesn't is consistency, something that Jeff Gordon touched on.

Gordon said (via Hendrick Motorsports),

“I think right now, if I just look at who’s the most solid championship-caliber team, I think it’s them because, okay, they might not have the laps led and the number of wins but they also don’t have the DNFs. They’re always in this third-to-seventh range almost every weekend and that’s strong.”

Elliott has finished outside the top 20 on only two occasions this season. In fact, his first finish outside of the top 20 came at the Chicago Street race, in the 20th race of the season.

However, another aspect of the playoffs that Gordon claimed could end up favoring Elliott is the schedule.

The 4x Cup champion Gordon added:

“Again, I go back to the schedule. I think there’s a lot of good race tracks for them and I think a lot of people don’t realize that if you go look at owner and driver over the last few years, those guys have been there. Remember, last year he was out of it on the driver side because of injury but that team was in that top four. I think they’re a real championship-caliber team this year."

It's worth mentioning that there are two road course races in the Round of 16 and Round of 12 of the playoffs. Chase Elliott is the third most prolific driver in the history of NASCAR when it comes to road courses.

The #9 driver has 7 wins to his name, just one shy of Tony Stewart in 2nd, and two of Jeff Gordon's tally of 9 road course wins.

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Chase Elliott is expecting "craziness" at Atlanta in first race of 2024 NASCAR playoffs

Ahead of the 2024 season, NASCAR made a major change to the playoff schedule. Darlington had been the first race of the playoffs for the last four seasons, but for 2024, the first race of the playoffs will be Atlanta.

Since its repaving, the Atlanta racetrack has produced speedway-like racing, otherwise experienced at tracks like Daytona or Talladega. More notably this season, Atlanta ended in a three-wide photo finish for the ages as Daniel Suarez won the race.

Because of these factors, Atlanta being the first race in the first round of the playoffs could lead to several unpredictable scenarios.

And this wasn't lost on Chase Elliott, who said (via Sports Illustrated),

“The first round definitely needs to be respected because it’s not a cakewalk by any means. That is what you get when you have these short rounds every year, we put another speedway in there and you are going to get craziness."

It remains to be seen whether Elliott will register his second win of the season in front of his home fans, or if he ends up with a respectable finish to keep his momentum into the playoffs.