Chase Elliott sends warning over 'dirty air' complaints after NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono

After another top-five finish, Chase Elliott had a warning for NASCAR fans concerned about how dirty air is affecting races. The Next Gen car has had a rough time fighting through dirty air at a variety of tracks. It’s an issue that drivers and others have pointed out since 2022.

Most of the time, the issues in traffic and dirty air for the Next Gen show up at the short tracks. But really, it is any track where drivers can’t find a lane outside of the preferred one that the leader is using. Without the ability to grab even a little bit of clean air in an alternate groove, the car struggles with passing.

Chase Elliott talked about his day on the track at Pocono after the finish. He was happy with the P5 result, but knew he left some out on the track.

“Yeah for sure. It’s nice to kind of miss as bad as we missed yesterday and get a top-five out of it,” Elliott said to Frontstretch. “Obviously, we would have liked to have had more. I struggled a little too much late in the run there in [Turn] three and yeah, opened up a lot of opportunities.”

Then, he was asked directly about the dirty air. He smiled while he answered.

“I mean, there are some guys who do pretty good with it, but you’re going to hear more of it. Just wait.”

Dirty air has been a topic off and on for years now. We forget about it when NASCAR races at Charlotte and Michigan and Kansas. Then, it rears its ugly head soon after. The cycle starts all over again.

Chase Elliott slowly building winning speed

For the first time this season, Chase Elliott has back-to-back top-five finishes in the Cup Series. The speed has been greatly improved over the last few weeks. While he wasn’t in the mix for the win late, another restart could have made things very interesting.

Elliott and the Hendrick Motorsports group as a whole were terrible in qualifying. They brought little to no speed to the track. However, things changed throughout the race as adjustments were made and drivers got comfortable behind the wheel.

Atlanta this week, then Chicago Street for the Cup Series. I’m not sure those are races that Elliott is going to win. But when I look three weeks ahead, to the Sonoma race, that feels like it could be the day everything comes together. Just a hunch.

Dirty air is going to be an issue at Dover, at Indianapolis, Iowa, to an extent, and especially Richmond. But races at Atlanta, Chicago, Sonoma, Watkins Glen, and Daytona should be less about dirty air. There will be other quirks that drivers have to deal with in the Next Gen car at those races, though. When is that horsepower increase coming?