August 20, 2020 | By Lee Spencer

Is momentum enough to carry Chase Elliott through NASCAR's post-season?

When the 2020 season started, the new Chevrolet Camaro appeared to be Hendrick Motorsports' secret weapon.

Alex Bowman won at Auto Club Speedway. Chase Elliott finished fourth and won the pole the following week at Phoenix. Jimmie Johnson posted two top 10s and was fifth in the standings before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. 
The strides the organization made in the first four races of the year appeared to carry over for NASCAR’s most successful organization after the sport's reopening. 

At Charlotte, Elliott finished second in the Coca-Cola 600, with Bowman taking the first two stages. Four days later, Elliott's No. 9 Hendrick team won the second Charlotte race. But before Elliott’s dominant run on the Daytona Road Course on Sunday, he had posted just one other podium in his previous 15 starts. 

Was the victory a harbinger of Elliott’s potential against series powerhouses Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin?

“No,” crew chief Alan Gustafson said emphatically following the win. “At the beginning of the year I thought we were the best car for a significant part of the season. I mean, it could be my rose‑colored glasses, but I certainly felt like we were in contention to win about every week. 

“We've had some issues and slips since then, and those guys have got the upper hand on us, and we don't have the pace to match them right now. And we can't consistently compete to win on all different configurations of tracks.”

Harvick stumbled mightily at Daytona but still recovered to finish 17th. With six wins, five stage wins and 35 Playoff points—nearly twice as many as Elliott—Harvick can coast all the way to Phoenix, where he holds the track record with nine wins.

Hamlin came out of the gate with the Daytona 500 win. Despite falling to 11th in the standings prior to the pandemic, he has scored four victories and enjoyed nine podium finishes since NASCAR resumed. His 30 Playoff points are second to Harvick. And in Elliott’s two wins, Hamlin was right in his rearview mirror.

Elliott is currently fourth in the standings, behind Hamlin and two former Cup champions Harvick and Brad Keselowski—all who can win at any track on the circuit. Despite Elliott’s talent, half his wins have come on road courses. The 24-year-old’s other four victories have been scattered between Kansas, Talladega, Charlotte and this weekend’s venue, Dover. 
A driver has to be more than a one-trick pony to win a title.

“We know that you're going to have to win and win often to be the champion,” Gustafson said. “It's not going to be some situation where you're going to run fifth to tenth and make it. You're going to have to go and win and compete with the 11 and the 4 and those guys on a regular basis and win.

“There's certainly specific tracks that we're still really good at. Obviously, Bristol and road courses. I think we'll have our chances, but I do think we've got to find some pace and some speed to match those guys when it comes to the Texases and Kansases and racetracks along those lines.”

Gustafson isn’t ready to throw in the towel yet. With three races remaining before the Playoffs—including two at the Monster Mile where Elliott has a formidable average finish of 8.6—he could easily pick up another victory. But given the roll that Harvick, Hamlin and even Keselowski have been on of late, Hendrick will have to throw all of its resources behind Elliott for the team to have a shot in the Championship 4.

“We're working hard,” Gustafson said. “I promise you there's nobody in the garage working as hard as Hendrick Motorsports is and the 9 team is to try to reel them back in, but those guys have got an upper hand on us, and I'm sure they did it by grinding hard and working hard. Kudos to them for doing it--but we've got to find something.”