Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Chase Elliott Interview After Winning at Texas | VICTORY LAP

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

Chase Elliott analyzes his NASCAR Cup Series win at Texas Motor Speedway, dives into his performance, race strategy, team execution, season momentum, and evolving championship outlook in one of the most insightful NASCAR interviews of the year. On this episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Mamba Smith sits down with NASCAR Cup Series driver Chase Elliott to break down his latest victory, discuss areas for improvement, explore what makes this season different, and outline his mindset as he pushes toward a potential championship run. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. I truly think there's room for us to. improve. And you know, they don't give out the big trophy until November, right? If you're great and how bad my burnout was, I'm fine with you. You can give me a F-minus. Welcome, California's Kevin Harvick's happy hour on podcast. This is the Victory Lab. Your boy, Mama Smith, back in the saddle. Coming off of Texas Motor Speedway, our winner, Chase, Elliot. Chase, how we doing, brother?

Good man. Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on. I know you're a busy guy. So let's talk about the race, man. At the end of the stretch there, you guys really locked in some good pit calls, but that last restart, you were able to hold off the 11, walk us through the last couple laps there. Yeah, it was. It was honestly a really good day all around. I was super proud of the effort all weekend. I thought our prep going into the week was really good. I thought we had a pretty solid Saturday.

I felt like I probably underperformed, you know, some of the... potential in our car qualifying, but I thought we made good adjustments going to Sunday and executed a good race. Yeah, and, you know, Alex gave me a great shove on that last restart. Alan made a good call to, you know, leave us out and, you know, kind of, kind of take a chance that that thing was only going to have one restart to the end. I think that's always the kicker in those situations is how many restarts are you going to have? And that's just an answer no one has in front of them, right? So that's a tough one. So I thought he made a good decision. I thought that was the right move, thought it was worth the gamble,

and thought it was just going to be all about getting clear of Denny there and one and two, and fortunately executed a good turn and put together a good four or five laps here to close it out. Yeah, when you look at, you know, your time in this generation car, the seven-gen car, you've been open about it. It was kind of a struggle at the beginning, and now it seems like you have turned a corner. We've talked about it on this show a lot, how at the end of last, year, you could really see it coming on. Do you think you've been able to carry over what you guys learned last year?

Is this a completely different beast that you're dealing with this year? I think it's all a continuation. You know, I think it's all cumulative over time. I think that the lessons that you learn are, you know, you'd be doing yourself a disservice to not carry them forward, especially if it can help you, like even making some bad decisions over the last three or four years, I think has an impact on the good days that we've had to this point. you know, throughout, you know, throughout the last year or two, really.

So I think that all that's important to keep in mind. And remember, there's certainly been new challenges this year with the new body and us just trying to figure it out. You know, like we had a test earlier in the year at Wilkesboro. And then, you know, Kyle had a test at Chicago last week. And, you know, you combine those two opportunities to gather data with on-track opinions and thoughts. and just data that we've gathered manually through the course of the season, and you're just trying to piece all the,

you know, put all the pieces of the puzzle together. And, you know, I think the good news is we had a, obviously had a good day yesterday, and that's something that, you know, we certainly should be proud of, but I truly think there's room for us to improve yet. And we're gonna have to because it's May, and you know, they don't give out the big trophy till November, right?

So I think it's important for us to continue to progress, and I think we still have room to do that. you're a cup champion obviously but at the beginning of the year i put out a statement i said i think we can expect the nine team to have a breakout year and what i meant by that is multiple wins running up front on a week to week basis and now you're starting the year off you already got two wins in the back pocket um when you look at your championship year years where you have multiple wins does it feel like that type of momentum or does this feel like a different year compared to other successful years

it's a good question truthfully it feels different right now at least and and that could change right like i don't know what it's going to feel like next week you know you can have a stretch of bad races just like we've had you know it stretches some some good ones at times too but um it does feel a little different i you know was talking about it yesterday in the media center it's the first time we've ever had you know multiple wins this early in the year and i knew that after martins though i thought that was a really cool accomplishment for us just as a team because, you know,

we've been doing this a long time. And I think any time you can check new boxes off that you haven't accomplished before, especially when they're in the wind column, is something to be proud of. And I'm really proud of our team for that. And it's not from the standpoint of, you know, oh, I think that it takes the pressure off of us. We can relax. I think it's really like, man, we just have a much longer runway to make it even better and to keep building on it. We've not historically had that opportunity.

and I think it's important for us to just continue to keep the hammer down and keep our heads down, just keep working. You know, I think that's really been a lot of it is just keeping our heads in the game and thinking about the right things on the weekends and talking about the right stuff on Monday and implementing those thoughts and decisions into our cars the right way each week and then ultimately executing good days. Alan called a great race. Our pick crew has been performing at an extremely high level. And I just think we have a really talented group of people, you know, know, over the wall, behind the wall, you know, across the board. So I think it's important for us to capitalize on all that while we can. And, you know, look forward to, you know, whatever challenges around the corner.

You're one of the most polarizing drivers, personalities, people in motorsports. When you win, it shakes the fabric of the NASCAR ecosystem. And with that comes a lot of different challenges for the guys on your team, the guys and girls are on your team. And you guys have been together for a very long time. like you just mentioned. So going through all those ups and downs together, how do you stay focused?

How do you keep everybody focused on what the main thing is and continuing to push forward like you have been over the course of your career? Yeah, I think it's leaning on that experience that we have been together for a long time and I've been doing it for over 10 years, you know? And I think when you compete at a high level for a long period of time,

and you're a part of a sport like this and that has eyes and gets attention or whatever, you're certainly going to have outside opinion. And at the end of the day, I think it's up to you to decide how much of that matters to you, how much of that you let in or how much of that can affect your team. And I think the cool part about our team is over the course of time. I feel like truthfully, we've done a really good job of just recognizing that,

man, you know, what matters is what happens. happens inside our walls and the things that we can control and the things that we put emphasis on and we talk about and no one else is going through those battles, right? Like, you know, even the smartest person in the world out there that has the answers to everything is not living in your shoes. And I think it's important for us to recognize that and also, you know, go after each day with that knowledge and understanding that, you know, we ultimately can make a difference. And narratives can change fast. You know, all sports is what have you done for me lately.

I've said that for years. And it's up to you as your individual team to just dig in and do the best job you can. And if you want those narratives to change, it's on you to do it. And fortunately, I've had a great opportunity with a great team for a long time that believes in me and has, you know, put a lot of faith in me to, you know, dig in and try and pull my weight. So that's really all I try to do is do my part. and we focus on ourselves and the things that we have going on behind closed doors and just go to work, man. Just grind it out. Let's go to work.

Man, you talk about your team, and we talk about how much of a team sport this is all the time, or family sport this is all the time. Your cousin is on the spotter stand for you, Trey. What's it been like kind of being able to be so close to somebody like that and have them so close to your career? You guys work together, and when you win, you guys. get to win together and celebrate together as a family. Yeah, I mean, I think it's definitely more of a professional setting than it is a family setting at that level.

And I think the cool thing is, is we, you know, we do a good job of separating those things out. And I think he's, you know, he's done a good job spot. And, you know, certainly has with experience, just like I was talking about, about the rest of our team that's been together for a long time, he hasn't been a part of that for the entirety of that length of period. But I can see each year. You know, he's like, you know, little things here or there that he's pieced together that are, you know, that improve. And he's starting to see, see the picture a little differently.

And so that's been fun to be a part of as well. So, yeah, happy for him. Happy for everybody on our team. They totally deserve it. Like I said, we had a great group. And, you know, I think that they, I just think a lot of them, you know, at the end of the day. And I think that they deserve to win. and I'm glad that I'm glad we had a good day yesterday

and hope we can have some more for them throughout the year because like I said, they certainly deserve it. We're expecting to see some more victory celebrations at that number nine Chevrolet Chase. Now, we grade the celebrations here on the show every week. And last year, you started off the year with one of the best wins all year. I didn't think anyone was going to beat it.

You basically drifted around the Coliseum at Bowman Gray. You got anything coming up for? You got some special celebrations, you know, for the next win? What do you think? That's a good question. I didn't think mine, I didn't think yesterday was all that good, to be honest. I felt like it could have been a little bit better, you know what I mean? I thought you had more.

Yeah, no, I'm fine with, I'm fine with you criticizing that all you want. I didn't think it was, I didn't think it was my best work. But you know what? I also realized that's a great problem to have, man. If you're grading how bad my burnout was, I'm fine with you can give me a F minus. from all I care at that point. But I'll try to, if I get another opportunity, I'll try to do a little better for you.

I appreciate it, man. Looking forward to the next opportunity to see Chase Elliott and Victory Lane. Hopefully on the show with us again. Chase, congratulations on this weekend and good luck to Watkinson. Thanks, man. Have a good one. Hey, y'all. It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair.

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