November 1, 2020 | By Lee Spencer

Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman are Chevrolet's last hope for a Championship 4 contender

Can Alex Bowman or Chase Elliott put a bow-tie into the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway next weekend?

Chevrolet has not advanced to the final four since 2016 when Jimmie Johnson won his seventh and final championship after Carl Edwards and Joey Logano made contact in the closing laps of the race.

Both Hendrick Motorsports drivers are currently 25 points behind Brad Keselowski—the last driver currently above the cutline. A win for either Bowman or Elliott would leapfrog them into title contention.

“Obviously, we’re going to do everything we can to try to make that final round,” Bowman said. “Right now, it kind of looks like that everything we can is going to mean a win. So, hopefully, we can go try and make that happen.

“But, regardless, we want to finish the season strong and do the best we can. I’m definitely proud of where we are as a race team right now.”

Bowman has enjoyed a solid year in 2020—but it has been far from a breakout season. His current stats—one win, six top fives and 14 top 10s—have not improved significantly over 2019 with the exception of his 439 laps led.

Still, in the post-season, Bowman has six top 10s in eight races. His worst result was16th at Bristol.

“I feel like we’ve built a lot of confidence as a race team throughout the last two months or so,” Bowman said. “Whether we transfer to the Round of Four or not, I feel like we have a lot to be proud of over the last 10 races or so. We really should have all top-10’s through the Playoffs so far, just Bristol we had a tire issue and Talladega we got caught up in a crash.

“I think how much we’ve overcome this year as a race team and how strong we’ve been here at the end of the year, we have a lot to be proud of and we can continue to carry that momentum into next year regardless of if we make the final round or not.”

Bowman finished sixth at Martinsville Speedway in June, just his second top 10 in nine starts at the half-mile paperclip-shaped track. His teammate Elliott was one spot ahead. Overall, Elliott has been more consistent at Martinsville with three top fives and five top 10s in 10 starts. But he still considers NASCAR’s oldest venue to be one of the most difficult on the circuit.

“Martinsville is such a tough place and it’s a place that I’ve really struggled at in the past,” Elliott said. “We’ve had some good runs there too, but it’s such a knife-edge of getting your car perfect at that place. You’re asking to make such a sharp turn and you’re also asking to go from a really slow corner and accelerate at a pretty high rate back up on the straightaway, which can be hard on the rear tires as well.

“So, you’re just getting all those things married up and right is very tough. And then the passing side of things, I feel like has gotten really hard. I feel like it’s gotten harder over the past couple of years for whatever reason. I feel like some guys are starting to drive the track more similarly which makes it really hard to be different. And when you’re just kind of the same as the guy in front of you, although you might be able to make a little bit more time than him in certain areas if you’re driving the track with the same technique, it makes it very challenging to pass a guy.

“But that’s also what’s made some of these races very entertaining at the same time. So, I don’t exactly know what that is or why that is; but it certainly is a tough place.”

Elliott continued his streak of not only winning three races again this year but he was also dominant on road courses winning both the Roval at Charlotte and the Daytona road course debut. He has posted a career-best 858 laps led

In four full seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series, Elliott has yet to advance to the Championship 4 Round. Still, the 24-year-old third-generation racer has used losing as a catalyst moving forward.

“Yeah, it certainly is motivating for sure,” Elliott said. “As you go into that last weekend and you’re not a part of it you still want to try to get that race win and you’re still there battling; but at the same time, it is still disappointing; especially being just knocked out like six days ago like the way it was last year.

“It’s an unfortunate way to kind of end the year but that’s the way it is. If you’re not good enough or don’t have a good stretch of races there in each round, you’re not going to make it. So that’s just part of it.”