Kevin Harvick Urges Chase Elliott to “Qualify Better” After Dover Redemption

2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick has shared his thoughts on what Chase Elliott needs to do in order to win more races.

Kevin Harvick Urges Chase Elliott to “Qualify Better” After Dover Redemption

Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick (Via @chaseelliott/X and IMAGO)

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Chase Elliott fumbled the bag big time last Sunday at Dover International Speedway, as an ill-times pit-call cost him the lead and help Denny Hamlin to secure the win. He finished the race at P6, despite leading the most lap that anyone with the only positive being the race control he showed. Ex-champion Kevin Harvick has a solid observation about the HMS drivers’ performance.

In the latest episode of the Happy Hour podcast Kevin Harvick asserted that it not for the pitstop mishap caused by Alan Gustafson’s strategy, the No:9 Chevy would have been on the victory lane for the second time in 2025. The reason behind him getting a shot at win was the pole position Chase Elliott won, after the qualifying was washed out due to rain. This proves the 2020 champion needs to qualify better to win races.

The pit crew had a mishap, and it costed him the win, or a shot at the win. He had control of the race at that point. But the one thing that I want to point out, Chase Elliott always talks about qualifying. He needs to qualify better.

Kevin Harvick said via Happy Hour podcast.

In the words of Denny Hamlin, unlike his teammates, Chase Elliott isn’t a race winner that dominates events. So, according to Harvick, to control races like in Dover, the Chevy driver needs to qualify better, start upfront and keep the track position till the end. This will help them to get out of the grinding mentality that has been guiding their strategies since the start of the season.

This race, qualifying rained out. He had the track position to start, and it put him in a position to dominate the race. They’ve got to figure out how to qualify better. They score a lot of points. They’re grinders. They overcome things like this. This shows you what would happen if they would qualify better.

Kevin Harvick added.

Kevin Harvick asserts Chase Elliott, and crew has everything to dominate races

Further talking about the situation, Kevin Harvick pointed out that Chase Elliott has everything in terms resources at Hendrick Motorsports to help him produce dominant performances. But underachieving in the qualifying sessions has resulted in him not matching expectations in the race days.

Chase Elliott (via Hendrick)
Chase Elliott (via Hendrickmotorsports.com)

They’ve got the cars and capabilities from behind the steering wheel to dominate races, which is what we’ve been talking about him not being able to do. A lot of that is a result of qualifying.

Kevin Harvick said.

So, the team has understood that unlike some other big sides, Saturday’s performance determines how the perform in the race and in order dominate races as he should, he needs to be among the front row race starts. Dover was the race that proved this point for the No:9 team as well as the rest of the grid.

Saturdays are setting the tone for the No. 9 car to not be able to dominate.  Now, we know that if Chase Elliott can qualify well, he can dominate. We saw it here at Dover, with the car and the team that he has.

Kevin Harvick added.

The former champions comments seem solid, on point and Chase Elliott should look into taking the ex-SHR drivers’ advices. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the Mr. Most Popular racer of the sport in the remaining 15 races of the season with him being in the regular season title and Bill France Cup chase.

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