NASCAR Rest in Peace: Just Now, A Minute Ago” Chase Elliott involved in a plane crash today….see more…
Right now, Chase Elliott leads Kyle Larson in the regular season championship battle by just three points, and it’s only heating up. Throw in Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin and just 20 points separate the top four NASCAR drivers from each other.
This is going to be one of the most hotly-contested regular seasons in a while. Five races to decide who gets the 15 bonus points for the playoffs. It can keep you afloat for a round or two if things don’t go according to plan.
The fact that Kyle Larson is in a close fight with his teammate, Chase Elliott, is a good thing. At least, if you ask Larson it is.
“No I mean I think I’ve been getting that question I feel like a lot the last couple of months and no, I feel like our teams work, still all four teams work really well together,” Larson explained to Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “All the teammates, driver-wise still have great communication in meetings in stuff and asking questions back and forth and getting good answers to help each other. So, I think that’s important when you’re trying to continue to grow as an organization and I feel like Hendrick Motorsports, at least in my time being there in the three and a half seasons now, all of that has been really well.
“Competing for a regular season championship with Chase, and William is honestly not too far out of it, as well, I think it’s cool. I think it means our teams doing a good job and then you have Reddick and Denny in there as well. It’s extremely tight at the top and I don’t know when is the last time it’s been this tight between four or five teams. So, yeah, makes you be on your game. We’ve been a little inconsistent here lately just with some DNFs and stuff, which is a bummer, but yeah, hopefully, we can finish out the regular season pretty strong here. It’d be nice to get those 15 bonus points.”
Chase Elliot and Kyle Larson are 1-2 in the Cup standings. Is battling a teammate for the regular-season title any different than battling for a championship? Larson says not really, that it requires him to be on top of his game (and they have ha
Kyle Larson has been inconsistent. He pointed that out in his conversation with Pockrass and it’s a big reason why this battle is close. Throw in the fact that Larson missed the Coca-Cola 600, and he’s lost out on quite a few points.
Chase Elliott and Larson have traded the top spot the last few weeks. One bad run or a couple of stage wins could be the deciding factor. 57 points back from Elliott is William Byron.
It is nice for Larson to mention Byron. However, he needs four drivers to slip up in the next five races. Preferably, he needs them all to mess up a couple of times. Right now, I don’t see that happening, this is a four-horse race.
Really, the only big mistakes that Larson has made in the last five, six weeks – Iowa and Chicago. He won the pole at both races and walked away with P34 and P39 finishes. That is how Elliott and others got back in this regular season championship race.
As the season moves forward, these drivers will be keeping an eye on each other. You could argue that Reddick has the hot hand. Will he close the gap on the Hendrick duo before it is all said and done?
