Can Elliott Stop the Bleeding?

By: Tom Luttermoser   Image: NASCAR on FOX Twitter

Not many expected the regular season champion to have to rely on his playoff points to get him from round to round in the Playoffs. Luckily for Chase Elliott fans, he really hasn't had to. What he has done however is slide through the Round of 16 bleeding just few enough points, pulled a last second win at Talladega to get to the Round of 8 and then bleed points so far in this round. Elliott even bled points in the Round of 12 but the win locked him in, so we didn't really care.

Race 1 of the Round of 8 at Vegas and Elliott doesn't even show up, never really progressing passed P20. He did however make an appearance at Homestead. But Elliott came into the Round of 8 +31 over the cut line, Came out of Vegas +17 and left Homestead only +11. That means without winning the regular season title, Elliott would be below the cutline. Without his Regular season dominance, he would be well below that line. 

Elliott only scored 16 points at Las Vegas, but nearly doubled that at Homestead with 31, 8 of which were those ever important stage points. taking a look all the way back to Darlington and the start of the Playoffs, Chase Elliott went from points leader to only collecting 213 points since, that's only 43 more than Harvick in last. His teammate, Kyle Larson, who didn't make it to the Round of 8 has scored 285 and his teammate Byron who has acquired the most points during the playoffs has scored 337 points.

Chase has bled points nearly every single race, but there is some hope for Elliott nation going into the final cut race, Martinsville. Martinsville has been good to Elliott, he nearly scored his first career win there back when, before rebranding the team from 24 to 9. remember, this was the track that gifted him a win to get his 2020 title and 5 Top-5s in 14 races there. Chase has an average Martinsville finish of 12.7.

If Elliott can score stage points and keep out of trouble, he can easily squeeze on out to the Final 4. But any issues at all with a little decent luck to his Round of 8 competition or a win by a driver like Bell or Briscoe and he fails to make it to what would otherwise be his 3rd Final 4 appearance.