Chase Elliott had quite a race at Bristol Motor Speedway, didn’t he? The Hendrick Motorsports driver executed his strategy to perfection in the closing stages, finishing second at the 2024 Bass Pro Shops Night Race. It was his second-highest finish of the season, having won at Texas Motor Speedway earlier this year. While Kyle Larson utterly dominated the race, leading 462 out of 500 laps, it doesn’t take away the fact that on any other day, Elliott would have given the 2021 championship winner a run for his money

With the playoff round of 12 on the horizon, a prominent NASCAR insider has spoken about Chase Elliott’s performance at ‘The Last Great Colosseum’, which could indicate his chances in the upcoming seven NASCAR Cup Series races.

Is Elliott finding momentum at just the right time?

Nobody would have predicted that Chase Elliott would finish runner-up at Bristol’s 0.533-mile concrete oval. After all, the 28-year-old finished ninth in qualifying, behind the likes of Corey LaJoie and Carson Hocevar. Elliott was also the lowest-ranked Hendrick Motorsports driver by the end of Stage 1, finishing the opening 125 laps without gaining a track position. To make matters worse, he barely made it into the top 10 by the end of Stage 2, highlighting his struggles to make passes in his No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro

fortunes around in the final 250 laps, taking advantage of long green-flag runs to gain track positions and finish runner-up for the first time this season. Analyzing his performance, NASCAR insider Brad Gillie said on the GoPRNLive podcast, “He’s been really good at Bristol. Had opportunities to win, and you know, in different ways, they faded out, of course.”

Highlighting Elliott’s performances so far, Gillie went on to say, “They literally did on Saturday night what they’ve done all season long. I mean, they’ve got what? Two races? With all finishes inside the top 20, most of those being top-10 finishes, they’ve been consistent. He had that one great day at Texas where they went to Victory Lane but I felt like Saturday night was probably the closest they’ve come since that Texas win to say that Chase Elliott had the potential winning speed.”