Chase Elliott Slams “Unfair” Criticism Over Kyle Larson’s Recent Form

The last four race weeks have been nightmare outings for Hendrick Motorsports’s defending Cup champion Kyle Larson. He finished outside the top-30 in three of those races and the best finish was the P15 at Indy. The veteran dropped down to P7 in the points table from P5 and some in the community has called out the racer over the struggle.

The veteran’s teammate Chase Elliott was asked about the No:5 Chevy drivers’ misfortune ahead of the Richmond race and he was quick defend the two times champion. He highlighted how all of the Hendrick Motorsports cars are finding it hard to find consistent form and asserted that it is unfair to single out one driver, who is giving everything behind to curtains to make a comeback.

I mean, I don’t think he’s alone in a lot of that. You know, it’s not like we’ve been lighting the world on fire either. You know what I mean? It’s not like I don’t think it’s fair to single him out on that. We’ve all been working really hard to be better.

Chase Elliott told the media ahead of Richmond race.

Later Chase Elliott, who has been the best HMS driver of the 2026 season with two wins, was asked about his plan for the remaining four races of the regular season. He highlighted how he isn’t thinking about accumulating as many points as he could and wants to take the opportunities at winning races like his teammate Kyle Larson.

Yeah, I’m not really thinking about padding. Like, I’m not thinking about padding points. I’m thinking about just running better. Like I tell you all every time you ask about it. It’s not about padding points. It’s about giving yourself opportunities to win.

Chase Elliott added via Frontstretch.

Further talking about the point, he asserted that points become irrelevant if he can get back to consistently fighting for wins, as if he does that, he would finish almost every race inside the top-5. At the end of the as long as he runs good enough and remain in the fight, he would be rewarded with points.

And if you’re giving yourself chances to win, and running consistently inside the top five, and putting together good days, leading laps, all those things, the points truly are irrelevant at that point. I mean, it just is. Like, if you’re running good and you’re doing your job, you’re going to get rewarded for it. And if you’re not, then you won’t. That’s just how it works.

Chase Elliott asserted.

Chase Elliott is a huge fan of Saturday night races

In a separate conversation about the race weekend, Elliott talked about Richmond being a Saturday night race and how much he loves the concept. For him these events have given some of him fondest arcing memories as a kid and he always looked forward for them. The only negative about the weekend is the fact that there no race to watch on Sunday.

I think Saturday night races have always been a really big deal. Growing up, for me, I always thought they were the most fun, like as a kid, as a fan, coming to the races. I mean, heck, even if I wasn’t there, I was watching it on TV and I was at home. I was fired up to have a Saturday night race. I thought it was great. The only downside was I didn’t have anything to watch on Sunday, but that was part of it, right?

Chase Elliott said.

The comments from the veteran racers shows how much he loves Saturday night races, like significant group of drivers as well as the fans in the racing community. NASCAR can explore with having more events in the timeframe in the future to take advantage of the nostalgia factors to boost TV ratings.

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