How 2024 came to an end: Elliott responded with a successful 2024 championship drive a year after missing the Cup Series Playoffs for the first time in his championship history. He finished in the top 10 in seven of the ten playoff races, including the race that set the Championship 4 and the playoff-best finish of runner-up at Martinsville Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway.
In the penultimate round, the 2020 winner was knocked out of the running for the championship. In the 10-race postseason stretch, he led 218 laps, which is more than half of his total laps led for the season. He ultimately placed seventh in the championship, his fourth top-10 result in nine full-time seasons.
Best race: On the steep banks at Texas Motor Speedway in April, Elliott won his lone race, his first in two seasons. He won the race and earned a spot in the 2024 playoffs by leading 39 laps, including the final 17 in a thrilling overtime match. In addition to being his first series victory in Texas, where he won his first career Xfinity Series in 2014 at the age of 18, it was his 19th career Cup Series victory.
Additional season highlights: include Elliott’s three consecutive top-10 finishes in at least three races. First, in Martinsville, Texas, and Richmond Raceway early in the year. Once more, from Pocono Raceway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the fall race at Richmond.
Ultimately, at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Martinsville, and Phoenix Raceway, he finished the season in three consecutive top ten finishes. He finished second in the Martinsville playoff race with a season-best 129 laps, one of seven occasions he led double-digit laps.
The victory at Texas, the second-place finishes at Bristol and Martinsville (fall), and the third-place finishes at Martinsville (spring), Kansas Speedway (spring), and Iowa Speedway comprised six of his top-five results. Elliott finished in the top 20 19 times in a row to start the season.
Noteworthy statistic: Elliott has won at least one race in six of the previous seven seasons as a result of his recent comeback to winning ways. His efforts to place in the top five and top ten by double digits were comparable to his performance in seven of the previous eight years. His average finish of 11.7 was his highest since 2021 (11.4), and he was running at the finish line in all but two events, setting another career record. I take great pride in our final three or four weeks of the season, and I felt that our performance was in a pretty good place overall.
“I think we’ll have a lot of great opportunities when I think about that and if we can just carry that forward to next year, and I think we intend to do that.” — Elliott on concluding the season “We were really, really solid in a lot of areas, truthfully. The two things we didn’t do, unfortunately, were the most important things, and that’s leading laps and winning more races. We were leading more laps there at the end of the season, and those are the kinds of things that give you more opportunities.”
Considering the future: The way this season concluded, especially his three top-10 finishes to end the race calendar, gave Elliott hope. His squad wants to take advantage of this momentum as soon as possible in the upcoming year.
With the victory at Texas, he now has wins at 15 different tracks, ranging from the superspeedway to the 1.5-milers that comprise the majority of the schedule, as well as smaller tracks and renowned road courses.
Elliott believes 2025 will be an opportunity to demonstrate that the Alan Gustafson-led team is returning to the type of performance that resulted in five years in a row with multiple victories from 2018 to 2022, including the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series title. Expectations are high on the No. 9 team, and that’s exactly what Elliott insists upon.
