NASCAR insiders react to Chase Elliott snapping winless streak at Atlanta, voice playoff concerns

For the first time in 2025, Chase Elliott found Victory Lane. Is this a sign of things to come or just another one-off performance? While Elliott has been the most consistent driver in the NASCAR Cup Series, he has at times lacked the extra edge needed to win races.

Of course, that wasn’t true at Atlanta last night. Chase Elliott was very aggressive and had a fast Chevy. He timed his runs in the last few laps perfectly. His teammate, Alex Bowman, made a great push to get Elliott to the lead.

From there, it was in his hands. But what does this mean in the grand scheme of the 2025 season? Is it a big deal, or will we see the 9 team struggle to win again after this?

Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic discussed the win on The Teardown. The two went back and forth on what this win means for Chase Elliott and the championship battle.

“I mean, here’s a guy who currently has his career-best average finish. 10.3. Here’s a guy who has not finished outside the top-20 all year long,” Gluck said, touting Elliott’s consistency. “In fact, he has only finished outside of the top-15 in three races this year.”

“It’s fine, but to me, it’s no different than Chase Briscoe a week ago,” Bianchi replied. “Like, you’re expected to win, you know, and it’s not just to win once. You’re expected to do this again and again. And it’s nice that you get a win, that’s great, but the reality is, guess how many stage wins Chase Elliott has this year – zero.

“He doesn’t lead a lot of laps. It’s great that you’ve got that average finish and that is great in this regular season points format. You know, 1 through 26. And if this was the old-school playoff format, 1 through 10 or way back in the day the 1 through 36 point system, Chase Elliott would be very very good. And their average finish is very impressive. … But they don’t lead a lot of laps, they don’t have a lot of bonus points. So, we have seen time and time again in the playoffs, those bonus points are the lifeblood of whether you advance or whether you’re eliminated.”

Bianchi put an exclamation on his overall point. He doesn’t think that Chase Elliott and his team have lived up to expectations.

“I think it’s fair to say that this team is not fulfilling its potential,” Bianchi said. “And it’s great that they won, but winning one race last year, zero races in 2023, and just one race right now, is that good enough?”

Chase Elliott needed a win, and he got one on Saturday night. He was aggressive from the start of the race to the finish. Afterwards, he showed quite a bit of emotion while taking in the reaction from the crowd. Everyone will be watching him over the next few weeks to see if the momentum is real or not.