Chevrolet praises Elliott's 'clutch performance' to win title
While Ford and Toyota drivers racked up most of the wins this season in the NASCAR Cup Series, Chevrolet snatched the biggest prize of all.
In a season that saw Ford driver Kevin Harvick and Toyota driver Denny Hamlin combine to win 16 of the 36 points races, Chevrolet was hard-pressed to make it to Victory Lane.
By the end of the year, Chevrolet drivers earned nine wins in 36 races.
But Chevy’s only multi-time winner this season, Chase Elliott, posted back-to-back victories when it mattered most – winning at Martinsville, Va., two weeks ago to reach the Championship 4 and then winning again Sunday at Phoenix Raceway to clinch his first series title.
It’s also the first Cup series driver title for Chevy since 2016, which was also the last of a record-tying seven won by Jimmie Johnson, who ended his fulltime NASCAR career in Sunday’s race as well.
Back on top
In a year when NASCAR, its teams and car manufacturers in general have faced financial insecurity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Elliott’s title was well-timed and well-received.
“It was absolutely incredible, this playoff format. It creates excitement. It creates immense amounts of pressure all the way around,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. vice president of performance and motorsports for Chevrolet. “The teams feel it. We feel it as manufacturers to deliver in those stages.
“The last couple years we didn’t make it – the last few years we did not make it to the final round. Very disappointing. But the whole phrase: Never give up, you can never give up. So, the teams have been working hard. More work going on than probably people see, and it all came together.
“It was a clutch performance, two in a row with Martinsville and now Phoenix. It was fantastic.”
Chevrolet teams kicked off the 2020 season with a new Camaro design, upgraded specifically to help improve performance.
Late in the year, Hendrick Motorsports and ECR Engines (part of Richard Childress Racing) announced they had started to collaborate on the engine development, something that would take on a more formal partnership in 2021.
Stronger together
While Chevrolet may have gotten off to a slow start in wins, it appeared the cooperation of Chevy teams began to pay bigger dividends in the playoffs.
“Along the way, between all of these efforts, our teams are working better together when we’re working on projects to prepare to go to the race track, and that’s a must. We do it in all the series,” Campbell said.
“We’ve done it with some degrees of success here in NASCAR, but I really do believe that we have tremendous momentum on that front, and we’re only going to get stronger in that area. Nine
wins when you look at our historic performance doesn’t really measure up, but we got the wins at the right time.”
Related video
Chase Elliott on being champion: "It's absolutely nuts"
NASCAR to hold one condensed postseason awards show next week
How Larson took the long way round to NASCAR Cup glory
From villain to hero, Kyle Larson had to reach his lifelong goal the hard way and go through a very public shaming after a ban for using a racial slur, but his talents shone long before his name grabbed the headlines...
How NASCAR is gearing up for its "biggest change" in 2022
It’s not just Formula 1 that’s set for upheaval in 2022, as the NASCAR Cup series adopts its Next Gen cars that will cast any in-built advantages aside and require teams to adopt a totally new way of operating. Far more than just a change of machinery, the new cars amount to a shift in NASCAR's core philosophy
Why Bubba Wallace’s Talladega win is such a big moment for NASCAR
Bubba Wallace claimed his maiden NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega on Monday to become the first Black victor in the category since Wendell Scott in 1963. Both Wallace and Scott had faced obstacles and racism in their paths to their breakthrough wins, and NASCAR is trying to put it right with its range of diversity programmes
Why NASCAR's most resilient driver has landed on his feet at 23XI
In a career that has had many ups and downs, Kurt Busch has been written off many times before. But facing career uncertainty after the sale of Chip Ganassi's NASCAR team, the 2004 Cup champion has found a new berth at Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan's 23XI organization - which underlines his enduring value
From the archive: Dale Earnhardt’s final Autosport interview
The death of Dale Earnhardt in the 2001 Daytona 500 shocked NASCAR to the core. At the Daytona 24 Hours, two weeks before his fatal accident, ‘The Intimidator’ shared his expectations of challenging for an eighth Cup title with JONATHAN INGRAM, in an article first published in the 15 February 2001 issue of Autosport magazine. Little did we know then what tragedy would unfold…
The lasting NASCAR legacy after Dale Earnhardt’s death
On February 18, 2001, seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Dale Earnhardt – the fearless ‘Intimidator’ – was in his element at Daytona International Speedway. While his own DEI team’s cars ran 1-2 towards the finish line, his famed #3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Monte Carlo was playing rear gunner to block any late runs from the chasing pack. As the cars tore through Turns 3 and 4 on that fateful final lap, Earnhardt maintained the strongarm tactics that encapsulated his persona… but his actions in those moments sadly proved to be his last.
Inspired by Pitbull, the “revolution” sweeping through NASCAR
The NASCAR Cup Series is changing. Whether it be the gradual morphing out the seasoned drivers of yesterday as the next generation step up, a radical calendar shake-up featuring more road courses than ever before and the prospect of an all-new car on the horizon, stock car racing’s highest level is nearing the end of a huge facelift.
The NASCAR storylines to watch out for in 2021
This weekend's Daytona 500 kickstarts a NASCAR Cup season that promises plenty of intrigue courtesy of new owners and a refreshed calendar. Here's what you need to know ahead of the new season…