At Dover, Denny Hamlin became the first driver this season to bag four wins, yet it was Chase Elliott who climbed to the top of the driver standings despite scoring just one win in 21 regular-season starts at Atlanta. Elliott\u2019s rise to the summit has been fueled by his consistency, with a season-long average finish of P10 and a steady accumulation of points. However, Kyle Petty has brushed aside that stat, arguing that leading the standings alone doesn\u2019t make Elliott the best on track.<\/p>\n
Elliott currently has 702 points, seven top-five finishes, and twelve top-10s. He has finished inside the top-20 in all 21 races. And yet, Petty doesn\u2019t see that as a significant accomplishment.<\/p>\n
Appearing on GoPRNLive\u2019s Fast Talk, Petty didn\u2019t mince words before saying: \u201cI\u2019m tired of it. I don\u2019t give a rat\u2019s rear end that he\u2019s (Elliott) the only guy that\u2019s finished in the top-20 every race this year. Top-20 is not a stat, dude. It\u2019s top-10, top-five, wins. That\u2019s what we go after. So I don\u2019t want to hear that one anymore. But what that does tell me is he\u2019s just been consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n
If it wasn\u2019t already clear, which it should be, Petty then doubled down on the fact that this is not the ideal kind of consistency. \u201cHe\u2019s (Elliott) been incredibly consistent. Mostly mediocre consistent, which has led him to lead the championship,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s all you can say about it, is (that) he has run in the top-five or top-10, and run in the top-15 or so, but he\u2019s just there. He\u2019s vanilla. He\u2019s right there in the middle. He\u2019s not done anything special to lead the points.\u201d<\/p>\n
Petty also pointed to Hamlin\u2019s four wins, Shane van Gisbergen\u2019s three, and other front-running heroics as the real markers of excellence, likening Elliott\u2019s approach to the race between \u201cthe tortoise and the hare\u201d, where the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports driver is the former.<\/p>\n
While Petty admitted Elliott\u2019s consistency benefits the sport and his fan base, he made it clear he values drivers who dominate races rather than those who simply finish near the front. \u201cHe\u2019s not my guy. So I\u2019m sorry. That\u2019s my critique on him leading the points at this time,\u201d Petty concluded<\/a>.<\/p>\n