Chase Elliott seeks improvements in partner and ...

It’s easy to wonder what might have been for Chase Elliott this past season, but he doesn’t view it that way.

After missing seven races, Elliott failed to make the Cup playoffs for the first time in his career. He also went winless in the series for the first time since 2017.

You miss seven races and that ruins your year,” Elliott said. “I don’t buy that.

“Yes, we would have made the driver (playoffs) if I had just run in those events more than likely. I don’t think that would have just fixed our problems and we would have been a contender like we want to be because of that.”

As Elliott reflects on this past season, he said the 2022 Cup playoffs — where he reached the Championship 4 — proved to be a sign of what was to come this season.

“I think that the things that we started struggling with last year continued on to this year,” Elliott said. “It was really a reflection of where we left off the season (in 2022) and, unfortunately, we just never figured some of those things out and got better.”

In the 2022 Cup playoffs, Elliott won one race and finished second in another but had seven finishes outside the top 10. He advanced to the title race with the help of the playoff points he earned during the season.

Elliott ran only two points races this season before he was injured in a snowboarding accident and missed the next six events. After he came back, Elliott had three top-10 finishes in the next six races. NASCAR suspended him a race after wrecking Denny Hamlin during the Coca-Cola 600.

Upon Elliott’s return, he scored three consecutive top-five finishes. That led to talk about how he still could make the playoffs on points despite missing all those races. Elliott always insisted he needed to win. That proved to be the case.

“Certainly not what I expected of myself and what we expected from our team,” he said this past weekend of his season. “Lot of room for improvement and we intend to do a lot of that going into next year.”

Elliott’s season was a mix of good and bad.

More than half of his finishes were top-10 results. But he led only 195 laps this year — the fewest he’s led in a Cup season. He had an eight-race streak with six top-10 finishes, including the opening three races in the playoffs. But he won only two stages all season.

He admits he would be focused on improving even if he had won this second championship this year, let alone a season like he went through.

“You’re always wanting to be better,” the 2020 Cup champion said. “I think we’ve learned a lot about ourselves and the things that I need to do better for me. I’ve learned a lot about myself and just areas that I want to improve in.”

When asked how he would grade his season, Elliott said: “It’s not what I want it to be. So, at the end of the day, I’m not happy with it. Whatever part of the scale that’s on doesn’t really matter. I want to be better. I think as I’ve expressed, I feel like I have a really, really strong team and guys that are working hard every week to try to give me the things that I want and need. That’s really all I can ask for.

“I just want to continue on that path and continue to work hard like we have been. I think the hard work and the resilience of not quitting and not giving up will eventually get us to where we need to go.”

And what did he learn this season?

“Lots of lessons,” he said. “A lot about the car and what I want to feel and what I think I need to feel in the vehicle each week, so really more just car related and kind of digesting most of that.”

When asked if he was surprised he didn’t win this year, Elliott was succinct.

“No,” he said. “Stuff’s tough. If you’re not on your game, you’re not going to win. We haven’t been on our game.”