Chase Elliott climbs up the standings in NASCAR Owner's Championship

While Chase Elliott won’t be able to win the Bill France Cup this year, he has a chance to win a championship for Hendrick Motorsports. Elliott made the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Owner’s Championship. Now, he’s poised to make the Round of 8.

Turns out, Elliott had a big points week last week at Talladega. He is now fourth in the Owner’s Points. However, he can’t just cruise to the next round. Elliott is just seven points above eighth place in the standings.

The good news, Chase Elliott is a two-time winner at the Charlotte Roval. He’s gone back-to-back there in 2019-2020. In fact, Elliott is the favorite heading into the weekend. He hasn’t qualified as well as he needs to lately but has a real opportunity on Sunday.

Right now, William Byron’s 24 team leads the Owner’s Points standings. It’s going to be tough to catch him, too. Byron is at 3136 points to Elliott’s 3080. Denny Hamlin is second with 3108. Christopher Bell is tied with Elliott at 3080 but has the tiebreaker as of right now.

Chase Elliott has finished in the top 11 in all of the playoff races to this point in the season. He has finishes of P8, P6, P7, P11, and P7 in the five races. It worries me that he has yet to get a top-5 finish, but that could change in a few days.

Is Chase Elliott turning the corner?

Coming off of his suspension, Chase Elliott scored three straight top-5 finishes. Sonoma, Nashville, and Chicago. Then, he just disappeared for five weeks. By the time it came to decide the playoff drivers, Elliott lost ground on the field and was in a must-win situation at Daytona.

Now, we’ve seen him score two top-5s and four top-10 finishes in the last eight races. Elliott has won at the Roval twice. He has a win at Martinsville and has won at Phoenix. There is a lot of potential here for a split championship.

I think the keys for Elliott to win at the Roval starts with track position. Qualifying will be key. Elliott hasn’t qualified in the top-5 since Kansas a month ago. If he can get some decent track position, then he could win. Byron has had a lot of speed, Kyle Larson has had a lot of speed too. It might be Elliott’s turn.

I’m not 100% convinced how dedicated the No. 9 team is to winning the NASCAR Owner’s Championship. What I mean by that is, Hendrick would rather Larson or Byron win the championship outright. A split championship makes things strange in the end.

I do think that Chase Elliott is dedicated to making it to the Round of 8. That is likely his ceiling in this Owner’s Championship battle for this season. The comeback in 2024 is going to be very important. I think it could be a massive year for Elliott and his team.