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Chase Elliott Lacks confidence at Watkins Glen this Sunday.

Chase Elliott’s level of confidence heading into Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen might surprise some people.

The driver of the No. 9 has seven career Cup victories on road courses, the most among full-time active drivers. Elliott has two victories at Watkins Glen in 2018 and 2019, with the 2018 triumph being his first career Cup win. 

Despite the past success, Elliott admittedly lacks confidence heading into this Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen.

Elliott on his confidence level at Watkins Glen: ‘Pretty low’

Following his win at the Texas Motor Speedway last Sunday, Elliott made an appearance on a recent episode of “Dale Jr. Download.”

On the show, Dale Earnhardt Jr. noted that Elliott has had a ton of success at Watkins Glen in the past, but not as much in the NextGen era. When asked about his level of confidence heading into Sunday, Elliott delivered a blunt response. 

“It’s pretty low right now, if you watched how we ran last year,” Elliott said.

Elliott finished 26th in last year’s Cup race at The Glen. Since the start of the NextGen era in 2022, the Hendrick Motorsports driver has one top-five finish at Watkins Glen, while his last three finishes have been 19th or worse.

On top of that, none of Elliott’s seven road course victories have come in the NextGen era.

The Dawsonsville, Georgia native went on to discuss his past success at Watkins Glen, and expressed disappointment in missing a year at the track due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. 

“We had a great run, great stretch for two or three years up there. Missed a year during the COVID thing. That was a place, boy, if I could’ve talked the state of New York into having us, I would have gone up there and lobbied myself, because I wanted to go up there so bad. We were running so good at that track,” Elliott said.

Since those glory days at The Glen, the New York road course has been a struggle for Elliott. When reflecting on last year’s race, the 2020 Cup champion took most of the blame for what he described as one of his worst 2025 performances. 

“The last couple of years have been tough. This past year, in particular. When you look back, that was arguably one of our worst races of the year. Super, super poor. I think a lot of that falls on me. I think I kinda went down some bad rabbit holes of trying to make pace in the wrong areas and doing things to catch up to the competition,” Elliott said.

Despite lack of confidence, Elliott looks forward to Watkins Glen

Elliott is not liking his chances this Sunday at Watkins Glen, but the 30-year-old is keeping his head held high. 

Despite the recent Watkins Glen struggles, Elliott said he is looking forward to giving it another shot. The 23-time Cup winner felt there were some solid “lessons” learned from the earlier road course race this season at Circuit of The Americas.

Coupled with some areas Elliott believes he can be better in from last year’s Watkins Glen race, he believes a better performance is in store.

“My confidence isn’t super high just because of our performance last season, but I am actually looking forward to going and just trying again. I think we can do much better,” Elliott said. 

Elliott has two wins in 2026, which came at Martinsville last March and at Texas last Sunday. The HMS star is currently third in the points standings after 11 races.