NASCAR

Elliott crowned regular NASCAR season champion as attention switches to playoffs

Motorsport Technology
30 Aug 2022
4 min read

Chase Elliott was all smiles as he was crowned regular NASCAR Cup Series champion after the day’s racing drew to a close at the iconic Daytona International Speedway.

Elliott was already guaranteed top spot after his fourth place finish at Watkins Glen, his tenth top five finish securing him an additional and potentially vital 15 playoff points as teammate Kyle Larson bagged the victory.

And for a long time, it looked like the Hendrick Motorsports team, partnered by Acronis, would further cement its position as the dominant force of the season heading into the play offs as Elliott led a race-high 31 laps in the No. 9 A SHOC Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 before being collected in a late pile up that ended his chances.

2021 NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Larson would also have fancied his chances of race victory having led the field to green for the start of the race. But those hopes literally went up in smoke on lap 15, a suspected timing belt issue meaning he would eventually finish well down the field.

Regardless of some severe misfortune in Daytona, the season has been another outstanding one for the historic Hendrick Motorsports team and all four drivers remain part of the 16-driver NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs field.

Regular Series champ Elliott goes into the 10-race postseason starting at Darlington Raceway on Sept. 4 boasting four victories, two more than teammates Kyle Larson and William Byron with Alex Bowman also picking up a win.

ANDREWS AND GORDON PRIMED FOR PLAY-OFFS

“As we know with the playoffs and that environment, you have to win,” team president and general manager Jeff Andrews told the official Hendrick Motorsports website. “The further you get into the playoffs it will be very critical to have teams, race cars, engines and a mindset of sometime in those last couple of rounds, you have to win to advance yourself on to the remaining rounds.

“As we get late in the rounds, it gets time to really go out and perform in the races. Of course, we want to be fortunate enough to get to Phoenix (Raceway) and have hopefully at least one of those four cars in that final race. You have to go out and win that race to win the championship.”

Jeff Gordon, Vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, added that there will be no taking the foot off the gas in the intense caldron of the playoffs, where everyone is in with a fighting chance.

“I think we’ve got the best people to go out there and get the job done. I have a lot of faith that we’re going to have a strong playoffs. We’ve seen in the past where people have been able to dominate and get a big advantage and sort of float their way through the first couple rounds.

“We don’t have that. If you look at the playoff points and how close it is, every lap and every detail that they put into the cars going into each race from practice to qualifying to the checkered flag, you can’t make mistakes.”

TEAM UP WITH ACRONIS

During the 2021 season and continuing this year, Acronis opened up an exciting #TeamUp Program, giving new and existing service providers the opportunity to support sports partnerships, join the sports ecosystem, attend races and enjoy amazing sports marketing benefits. To find out more, please visit https://www.acronis.com/en-us/lp/msp-sports/

Climb Channel Solutions is a specialty IT distributor and key Acronis partner. The company connects partners, resellers and end-users with emerging technology, a global distribution network, and the sales and marketing support they need to accelerate and scale business in the channel. Acronis’ sponsorship of Hendrick Motorsports will highlight Climb’s commitment to delivering its partners access to the best and fastest-evolving technologies and services available.

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