"It's a high standard at Hendrick": Jeff Gordon's strong words as Chase Elliott grapples with 'not meeting expectations'

Amid Chase Elliott's struggles, Jeff Gordon has iterated that running for Hendrick Motorsports is a high-standard job, requiring promising results week after week. This comes in the wake of Elliott's underwhelming performance compared to his teammates William Byron, Kyle Larson, and Alex Bowman.

The 2020 Cup Series champion aced the preseason Clash at the Bowman Gray Stadium, sending a strong message about his performance. However, as the season kicked off at the Daytona International Speedway and progressed to Atlanta, COTA, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Miami, Elliiott's performance declined.

The HMS driver grappled with keeping his #9 Chevy among the frontrunners, whereas his teammates stayed up top, showing consistent dominance. Byron won the Daytona 500, while Larson triumphed in the Homestead-Miami race. Meanwhile, Bowman posted his fourth back-to-back top-10s alongside a season-best finish in Miami.

Thus, amid Chase Elliott's and Co.'s inability to 'meet expectations' for HMS, the organization with 14 Cup Series titles and 314 Cup wins, Gordon expressed that driving for HMS means 'high standards.'

"They’re a really solid team. Just a lot of depth and a lot of belief in one another. You know, you’ve got to get through the rocky times. I think hopefully some of their better tracks and better performances… And, again, it’s a high standard at Hendrick, what everybody brings, like the 5 team did today," Gordon said via Cup Scene (13:18).

"So a lot of times you’re really measuring yourself against the best that there are out there, and a lot of times that’s right in your own stable. So if you’re not achieving what you want to achieve, then you know you’ve got to go to work, and you know that you’re not meeting expectations," he added.

It's worth mentioning that Elliott tried to redeem his form in Miami. However, a pitlane penalty at the end of Stage 2 resulted in a rear-of-the-field start in the final stage, shattering the HMS driver's odds, and spiraling into an 18th-place finish.

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NASCAR insider counters Chase Elliott's penalty defense at Homestead-Miami

According to NASCAR, the NextGen machines were expected to enter the pitlane in a single-file formation. However, as the pack steered into the pits, scarcity of space forced Chase Elliott to move out of the line to avoid wrecking Austin Cindric's rear.

Despite the HMS driver claiming to have given the position back and citing his decision as 'reasonable,' the officials deemed the act illegal.

Following the sixth Cup Series race weekend, NASCAR insider Jeff Gluck carefully scrutinized Elliott's in-car footage. He asserted that Elliott didn't really give the track position back to Cindric as the HMS driver claimed. Gluck pointed out that Elliott's #9 Chevy was next to Cindric's #2 Penske Ford when they were about to enter the pits opposing the HMS driver's stand.

"As they enter pit road, he's not like behind Cindric fully, he's (Chase Elliott) still alongside him a little bit. So to me, if you're NASCAR, I don't think you can say, 'No, he gave the spot back'...he got out of line, he gained too much ground and he messed up. Despite the convincing argument...when you look at the video, it doesn't look good," Gluck said via Dirty Mo Media.

Due to his comparatively subpar performance, Chase Elliott is ranked sixth, while his teammates have swept the top 3 in the Cup Series standings.