🔥🏁 CHASE ELLIOTT JUST SENT A MESSAGE AT PHOENIX — A THIRD-PLACE CHARGE GIVES THE NO. 9 TEAM NEW LIFE, BUT THE ROAD AHEAD JUST GOT WILD! 🏆🔥
PHOENIX — Chase Elliott did not win at Phoenix Raceway on October 18, but for the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team, third place felt like something much more important than another number on a results sheet. Starting 16th, Elliott worked his way forward and ultimately used a gutsy late-race strategy call — staying out on older tires — to hold on for third behind winner Tyler Reddick and runner-up Ryan Blaney. It was Elliott’s first top-five finish since Richmond and his best result of the 2026 Chase at that point. The performance did not suddenly erase his daunting points deficit, but it sent a message that longtime No. 9 supporters desperately wanted to see: Chase Elliott is still fighting, and his team may still have something left for the closing stretch of the season.
Phoenix demanded patience.
Elliott entered the race needing momentum after a difficult stretch, and his starting position offered no guarantees. He rolled off 16th while several major contenders occupied stronger positions around him.
But the No. 9 Chevrolet began moving.
Elliott finished seventh in Stage 1, earning valuable stage points after the team elected to take two tires during an early pit sequence. By Stage 2, he remained inside the points-paying positions, finishing 10th in the segment.
Then came the late-race decision that helped define his afternoon.
Rather than surrender track position, Elliott stayed on older tires and tried to make them survive against competitors with fresher rubber.
It was a gamble.
At Phoenix, where tire condition and track position can completely transform the closing laps, Elliott needed both discipline and car control.
He made it work.
When the checkered flag fell after 312 laps, Reddick had won by 0.801 seconds over Blaney.
Elliott was third.
He had started 16th.
He did not lead a lap.
But he finished ahead of Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, Chase Briscoe and several other major competitors.
Sometimes championship-caliber driving is about dominating.
Sometimes it is about maximizing an afternoon when domination was never available.
Phoenix looked much more like the second kind of performance.
And that may be exactly what the No. 9 team needed.
The reason Elliott can never be casually dismissed is written throughout his career.
He is the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion.
That title run remains the clearest evidence of what happens when Elliott and Hendrick Motorsports find their rhythm at exactly the right moment.
Pressure does not automatically overwhelm him.
He has experienced it.
He has survived it.
He has won through it.
NASCAR’s official driver statistics list Elliott with two Cup Series victories in 2026, six top-five finishes and 11 top-10s through the Phoenix race.
His broader résumé is even more impressive.
Elliott entered NASCAR carrying one of the most recognizable surnames in stock-car racing. His father, Bill Elliott, was a Cup champion and one of the most beloved drivers in NASCAR history.
But Chase eventually built an identity of his own.
The victories came.
Then the championship.
Then an extraordinary relationship with NASCAR’s fan base.
From 2018 through 2025, Elliott won the NMPA Most Popular Driver Award eight consecutive times. Only a handful of Cup drivers have ever accumulated five or more such awards, placing Elliott alongside some of NASCAR’s most recognizable figures.
And in an unexpected development immediately after Phoenix, Elliott made another significant decision.
He removed his name from consideration for the 2026 Most Popular Driver award.
The move ended the possibility of extending his streak to nine consecutive victories in the fan vote. Elliott said his decision was influenced by a similar choice his father made in 2001.
That means his eight-year streak now stands as a remarkable chapter of its own.
But popularity does not move a driver up the Chase standings.
Results do.
And that is where the challenge becomes much harder.
After Phoenix, Elliott sat 10th in The Chase standings, 149 points behind leader Kyle Larson. His third-place result allowed him to gain 36 points relative to the leader, but the gap remained enormous with the season moving toward its conclusion.
So the Phoenix finish should not be exaggerated into something it was not.
Elliott did not suddenly become the championship favorite.
He did not erase the deficit.
He did not leave Arizona leading the standings.
But he accomplished something the No. 9 team badly needed:
He produced a result.
And sometimes one strong afternoon can change the atmosphere inside a race team.
The next challenge could hardly be more unpredictable.
Talladega Superspeedway.
Few places on the NASCAR calendar can transform a season as violently or as quickly.
At Phoenix, a team can spend hundreds of laps adjusting a car, monitoring tire wear and gradually improving track position.
Talladega offers no such comfort.
Drivers race inches apart in enormous drafting packs at breathtaking speeds.
A driver can execute almost perfectly for hours and still become trapped in someone else’s accident.
The dreaded “Big One” can change the standings in seconds.
NASCAR itself described Talladega as essentially unpredictable heading into the October 25 race, noting that the Cup cars would return with a smaller 3.5-inch rear spoiler designed to reduce rear downforce and potentially increase maneuverability within the draft.
That creates both danger and opportunity for Elliott.
And there is an important reason for optimism.
He knows how to win there.
Elliott has already experienced Talladega Victory Lane, which means the No. 9 team is not entering Alabama hoping to solve the superspeedway puzzle for the first time.
The bigger issue is execution.
At this stage of the season, a solid afternoon may not be enough.
Elliott needs points.
He needs stage performance.
He needs finishes.
And given the size of his deficit after Phoenix, he needs the drivers ahead of him to encounter problems while he capitalizes.
That is a difficult combination to manufacture.
But NASCAR rarely asks permission before producing chaos.
One crash can eliminate several contenders.
One pit-road mistake can destroy a dominant afternoon.
One perfectly timed move can send a driver from the middle of the pack toward the lead.
That unpredictability is precisely why Elliott’s third-place Phoenix finish matters.
Momentum cannot guarantee what happens at Talladega.
Confidence cannot prevent another driver from triggering an accident.
But entering the most unpredictable race of the closing stretch after your best Chase finish is considerably better than arriving after another frustrating afternoon.
For the No. 9 crew, Phoenix offered evidence that they can still execute under pressure.
The strategy call worked.
Elliott protected his position on aging tires.
And when the afternoon ended, only two drivers had finished ahead of him.
That is something to build on.
There is also a deeper reason Elliott’s supporters remain so invested.
They have watched almost every version of his NASCAR journey.
They watched the enormous expectations that followed Bill Elliott’s son into the sport.
They waited for his first Cup victory.
They celebrated the 2020 championship.
They endured difficult seasons and injuries.
They watched him return to Victory Lane.
And year after year, they voted him NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver.
That connection explains why a third-place finish can generate excitement far beyond the points earned.
No. 9 fans know what Elliott looks like when everything begins clicking.
They have seen the ending before.
The question is whether 2026 has enough time remaining for another charge.
Phoenix did not answer that.
It simply kept the question interesting.
Elliott left Arizona 149 points behind Larson in The Chase standings. That is the reality.
But he also left with his best result of the Chase.
That is reality too.
And now comes Talladega, where reality can change at nearly 200 mph.
Perhaps the No. 9 team will get caught in the chaos.
Perhaps Elliott will find himself pushing another car through the draft with nowhere to go.
Or perhaps, when the final laps arrive and the field begins positioning itself for one last desperate charge, that familiar blue-and-white No. 9 Chevrolet will be exactly where Chase Elliott wants it.
Near the front.
Within striking distance.
Waiting.
Because if Phoenix reminded NASCAR of anything, it was this:
Chase Elliott may be a long way from the top of the standings — but counting out a former champion before the checkered flag is still a dangerous game.
DISCLAIMER: Chase Elliott officially finished third in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway on October 18, 2026, after starting 16th. NASCAR described the result as his best finish of the 2026 Chase at that point and his first top-five since Richmond. Official NASCAR statistics list Elliott with two Cup victories in 2026 through Phoenix, while he won the 2020 Cup Series championship and the NMPA Most Popular Driver Award eight consecutive times from 2018 through 2025. After Phoenix, Elliott ranked 10th in The Chase, 149 points behind Kyle Larson. Any discussion of a championship comeback, future victory or Talladega outcome is analysis and speculation, not a prediction or confirmed result. Photographs displayed are illustrative images of Elliott, the No. 9 team and NASCAR competition unless otherwise identified.
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