As part of NASCAR’s announcement today, Chase Elliott was present to talk about the return of The Chase to the Cup Series. Elliott is the Most Popular Driver in the sport, and he weighed in today with a challenge for fans.

Last year was full of complaints. You can’t deny it. Large parts of the anbase were upset about multiple things throughout the season. It all really started with the bizarre finish to the Daytona 500 when NASCAR officials held the caution flag on the last lap.

Of course, the season ended with a controversial weekend in Phoenix that resulted in a tumultuous uproar. With NASCAR announcing a return to The Chase, Chase Elliott wants fans to embrace it, and enjoy the season.

“You know, I think, look, this is, a couple things come to mind first and foremost, to Steve’s point – willing to listen. Not only to Mark [Martin] and Dale [Jr.] and even guys like myself and Ryan [Blaney] who have kind of screamed at some of these things over the course of time of just wanting it to be better,” Elliott said during the press conference. “And I think we all want it to be better because to Dale’s point, we are fans of this sport. I grew up a fan.

“I watched that video, you know, a lot of those years of Jimmie dominating, and the championship with Tony and Carl, all during The Chase were incredible runs, right? We often times forget just how good we had it through those years of The Chase format, and I do think it is a really nice compromise. I think getting a full season was going to be a pretty big challenge and I’m not really sure there’s a better place to land than a true 10-race Chase. Really similar to what we had through those years of the epic battles that we saw.

“So, I personally appreciate Steve and the folks at NASCAR for being able to come together with our TV partners and making everyone happy. That’s a really hard thing to do and I think sometimes we all forget about that and just how many pieces make this puzzle. So, really proud to be here. I can say that with complete honesty. This is something I’m proud of as a competitor. Something I’m looking forward to competing in and against these guys with.

“I think just from my perspective, just challenge the race fans here, let’s enjoy what we got. We’re so quick to complain about everything, everything that we have and everything that we do. Let’s enjoy what we have because we’re making history whether you like it or not. Celebrate the champion, celebrate the guys who went out there and did a good job. I think this format promotes that, so let’s enjoy what we have. We got a pretty cool thing at the end of the day. So, let’s not forget about it and enjoy what we got today.”

Chase Elliott believes The Chase is step in right direction

No one wanted to say that this was the perfect way of doing things. Compromise was used plenty of times, and there was a lot of talk about coming together and finding middle ground.

NASCAR now has to make a lot more happen to really reap the benefits of the championship format change. For Chase Elliott, points days will still be a thing, but the focus on consistency is still there.

“I think from my perspective, winning mattered in the previous format that we had as well, but you could also have good points days, too,” Chase Elliott explained. “I don’t think that it’s totally gone. You know, I don’t think that either side of the fence is gone. To me, I think that’s kind of the whole point of this, right? Is you know, you can go out there and have a great stretch of top-fives or top-10s and gets stage points and do all of those things.

“You can still have good points days, I don’t think that’s erased. Certainly, the amount of points that you’re going to get for winning is eventually going to add up. Look, I’ve always been a believer that I think a lot of the formats and things, a lot of times it’s going to come out in the wash. To me, that’s where, as long as we had an opportunity for a format to come make it come out in the wash, I think we were doing the right thing.

“To me, this format does that. Having bigger sample sets, as we’ve heard, not coming down to one race. There are just a lot of variables in motorsports, and I think as long as we give these drivers and teams and the races play out and let it come out eventually the way that it should, I think we’re doing right, and I think this is a great step to achieving that.”