Chase Elliott 'super happy' after earning season-best starting position at Richmond

After more than a month of struggles in qualifying, Chase Elliott finally earned himself a top-5 starting position at Richmond. He’s going to be in the mix early in the Cook Out 400 and will hope to keep his car steady and his pit stops clean. The NASCAR champion really needs a breakthrough weekend.

The points situation is out of the question as far as the No. 9 team is concerned. This is the best starting position for Chase Elliott for the entire season. His best start before this was in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte when he was sixth best in qualifying.

So, with a lot on the line and the starting position to do it, Elliott feels good heading into the short-track race. He will not have a good pit selection after failing inspection twice.

“Yeah, it seems like we were uh – I don’t know if your car ever feels good here. Such a weird place,” Elliott said to the media, via Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. “Thought it was – seemed to be better you know, to the competition than we’ve been in qualifying in the past little bit. So yeah, super happy with that especially with being the first one out there in the last round. I feel like any time you get in that position any position you can gain is good ahead of tenth. So good to get in the second round, good to get in the top-five there. So, happy about that.”

Chase Elliott is starting fourth today at Richmond. How he feels about his car and starting spot as he tries to rally to make the playoffs: pic.twitter.com/S45r40watv

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) July 30, 2023

Tyler Reddick will start on the pole and there will be a field of five Toyotas in the top-10 to start. Chase Elliott has never won at Richmond and will try to get his first win of the season and first at the track.

Chase Elliott needs to take advantage of starting position

Looking back on the races since Elliott was suspended, his qualifying efforts have been lacking. Sonoma he was P10 to start but didn’t really factor into the race. He did earn a top-5 spot though, and closed the points gap. At Nashville and Chicago, he earned top-5 results as well. But he had to come from the middle of the pack and rely on strategy to get him close to the front.

There has just not been a lot of speed in the last six weeks. Chase Elliott might be partly to blame, but if his car doesn’t have it, then he’s only able to do so much. In those past six weeks, Elliott has the best finishing position of any other driver in the Cup Series, averaging a finish of about 8th place. However, he has an average start of 21st.

So with speed in his car and precious track position as well, will we see an aggressive Elliott? How much is he willing to do to get to the front, take the clean air, and try to make this race a snore-fest? Ty Majeski tried to play a long-game strategy in the Truck Series and it didn’t pay off. What will the No. 9 Cup team do to make sure they don’t suffer the same fate?

It feels like this might be do-or-die time for Chase Elliott and his playoff hopes. We’ll have to wait and see what he is able to do with his season-best qualifying position.