Chase Elliott has never looked better this early and there is plenty more to come

Chase Elliott, Alan Gustafson and the Hendrick Motorsports team have never looked better to start a NASCAR Cup Series season and that makes them a very serious threat in the new Chase for the Championship.

Elliott has been in the lead early in a season with his usual consistency and ability to finish races and have good points days, but now he’s won two races in the first 11 races.

That’s the earliest he’s had multiple wins, by the way, and is now third in the championship standings. What makes a great Cup Series contender is the best of both worlds.

"I think getting a win early at Martinsville and I said it then… it's not like, 'oh, hey, the pressure is off, we have a win. It’s, ‘Man we have a lot longer period of time to build off of that.’ That was kind of where I was at, really.”

There are so many parallels from Elliott to his direct supervisor, Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman and four-time champion Jeff Gordon, but it’s mostly in how they pieced together seasons.

Even when Gordon wasn’t winning by big margins, particularly when he was paired with Gustafson, the No. 24 was often still in championship contention by virtue of sheer consistency. But you’ll also hear from Gordon that the consistency without winning multiple races was something that gnawed at him during those seasons.

“Consistency helps, because you’re not trying to re-invent the wheel,” Gordon said. “You are fine tuning. You're like "hey we're good but we need to be better. We want to keep working in some places because we must be doing something right.

“At least the consistency keeps you in a flow and a direction and I think you can build on that and only get better. But if you don't win every once in a while, like I've always said, if you don't win every eight to ten races, man, it just the hard work drains you, the whole team, driver, team, everybody, pit crew.

“You got to get these victories.”

But Gordon also said, if not winning races, they need to be winning “mini-races” on pit road or in consistency, all the little ways that Elliott and Gustafson have continued to be in the mix every season.

“It could be not just a win of a race, but those race wins are so critical I think to a team’s season and success because that builds the confidence to another level that not only are we heading in the right direction, but we’re capable of winning it all,” Gordon said.

“Then again, if you win consistently, that’s what makes a championship caliber team.”

Gustafson, a crew chief for more than 20 years, believes this is a championship-level team this season and thinks Elliott could win this title starting from 16th with 10 races to go … not that it will actually come down to that.

Of course, he thinks anyone could realistically win too, but he likes his chances sitting at third right now.

“Right. “Do the math, you know,” Gustafson said. “Tyler Reddick, he had a lead of over 100 points after 10 (races). You could see him starting 16th, winning the championship if you did those races over again, yeah? So I think everything is possible.

"I do think, look, everybody wants as many points as you can get. Of course, the best teams are going to position themselves at the top. I ain’t sleeping on nobody. I mean somebody can figure something out and get hot. “I don’t think 100 points makes anybody safe.

And perhaps the most telling thing about where the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 is right now is that they’ve put two wins together with consistency, while it seems like all of Chevrolet is still trying to get the most out of their new body style for this season.

This is not the best Hendrick Motorsports is all year either.” Elliott was quick to credit “the guys at the shop” for getting them closer each week.

“I mean, I think it’s always about the effort and the conversations that go on during the week and during the weeks leading up to the races and how that work is put into our race cars at the shop,” Elliott said. “Those races are definitely -- yeah, they’re won on the racetrack and how well you execute and all that, but you sure are hedging your bets a lot by how you prepare and what kind of car you have before it loads in the truck.

“I can’t stress that enough. I get that. It’s a big piece and I don’t know if a lot of people realize how important that is to the overall performance.” Really blessed and proud of everybody at hendrick motorsports for their continued effort to just dig in.

“We have a gritty group back home that just doesn’t take no for an answer. They’ll just work and work and work at it. Do anything that needs to be done. Friday, Saturday, midnight, 2 o’clock, whatever. We want to win and the boss wants to win and we’ll do whatever we got to do to try our best for that.”