“The Cars Were Definitely Edgier!” Chase Elliott ‘s Candid Take on the New Superspeedway Rules

2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale race at Daytona International Speedway witnessed the debut of the new Superspeedway rule package. The new rules played a significant role in how the race played out and Hendrick Motorsports veteran Chase Elliott shared his thoughts about it on his post-race interview.

The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion pointed out that the changes to the Next-Gen car made it easy for drivers to create runs and make moves. But the cars were also really edgy, making it easy to lose shape. At the end of the day, the No:9 Chevy driver likes the change, as it helped him to have better long runs.

Yeah, it seemed like the runs were… You could do more with runs when you had them. The cars were definitely edgier as the runs would go on. Like, really, really easy to get out of shape. But I thought just the overall ability to kind of get momentum and get last for a longer period of time, it seemed like it was better to me, I think.

Chase Elliott said on post-race at Daytona.

Furthermore, Chase Elliott pointed out that NASCAR now needs to find a way to balance the car with the new package, with more R&D. The rules made the racing better and if they can continue development in the same direction, the future is bright for races at Talladega and Daytona.

I think from there, if we had a chance to, now that we have a race, right, if we could maybe try and get our balances a little better, I feel like those two things combined might be pretty good. So, yeah, we’ll just see where it goes, but it seemed like a better race to me, I thought.

Chase Elliott added via NASCAR on YouTube.

Chase Elliott recalls how the race played out for him

In the same conversation later, Elliott shared his thoughts on how the race played out for him. He had some great moments, but couldn’t survived the chaos at the end and had to settle for a P23 finish. The day didn’t just play out as they expected it to playout.

There were a couple shiny spots, I thought. Had ourselves in an okay position there coming to that second stage. I knew it was going to be a chore with those guys lined up behind us, but unfortunately that went worse than I kind of thought it was going to go. Was hoping to get a couple points there; it would have been nice.

Chase Elliott said.

Further talking about the point, the champion driver asserted that the strategy gamble caused him disappointing finish. He called the day an up and down night for him, making it hard for him to really have an impact.

Then the end unfortunately got on the back side and the bad side of the strategy, and was kind of riding around there by ourselves out back. We caught that caution, and at that point, you’re just trying to stay out of the mess there at the end. So yeah, it was an up-and-down night for sure.

Chase Elliott added.

Though it was a subpar result, Elliott will be hoping to bounce back starting in the first race of the chase and being one of the championship contenders. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the driver.

Also Read: “Just Frustrating!” Chris Buescher Blasts Kyle Larson Over Wild Daytona Wreck