5 NASCAR burning questions: Will Chase Elliott put disappointing 2023 in...

This is the first in a five-part series examining questions entering the 2024 NASCAR season.

Missing seven races in 2023 didn’t disqualify Chase Elliott from the Cup Series postseason. It also didn’t hinder his popularity.

It should’ve come as no surprise that, for the sixth straight year, he succeeded in winning the sport’s most popular driver prize. But as for the postseason, the early points hole he found himself in was too deep to dig out from.

So, it begs the question, can Chase Elliott rebound from a disappointing 2023?

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It’s an important inquiry, and for reasons beyond Elliott’s professional resume´. Like it or not, major sports need their stars on the field, the court, or in this case, track.

Consider that in terms of television ratings, NASCAR Cup Series broadcasts underperformed when compared to the previous year up until the spring Martinsville race. That was also the event in which Elliott returned from a six-race absence after suffering a broken leg in a skiing accident.

And it probably wouldn’t hurt if Elliott was in contention, a place he rarely was last year even when he was on the track. He led only 195 laps in 2023, a new career Cup Series low.

His average of 6.5 laps led per event and his seven top-five finishes were low marks while Elliott’s 15 top 10s matched his 2019 total, also a career low. Maybe most alarmingly, he accumulated just one playoff point, the fewest since scoring 18 in 2018 and a year removed from piling up 46.

So, was it as rough as the numbers suggest?

In terms of contending for wins, yes. But by other measurements, not really.