Chase Elliott would admit that this season hasn’t gone the way that he’d had hoped it would have. Rick Hendrick admitted that he’s not overly happy with Elliott and Alex Bowman not being in the playoffs either.

“You just have to put your arm around them and say look, ‘this happened. Now let’s get ready for next year. Let’s see if we can get better every single week as the year goes on. These races that are left. Let’s see if we can get in the top 10, get in the top five and win a race,’” Hendrick said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “The Morning Drive” program earlier last week.

“I hate to see either one of those guys miss the playoffs because Alex was leading the points early in the year and had more top 10s than anybody. Chase was running good too. Things happen, life happens and you deal with it.”

However, I think most forget that Elliott is in the playoffs. While it’s not the drivers race, it is for the owners championship.

This is arguably the more important championship in the industry because this is where the money is made. The drivers standings are where names are made.

Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet is fourth in the owners race +20 above the cutline. Below the cutline is Brad Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford (-13), Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota (-15), Ross Chastain No. 1 Chevrolet (-23) and Kyle Busch’s No. 8 Chevrolet (-39).

“It’s kind of surprised me in a way because obviously there is a lot of talk about the driver side and there is not really a lot of talk about the owner’s front,” Elliott said. “Once the deal got started, I don’t feel any different than I have felt in years past. It still keeps us very motivated and keeps me motivated to want to go and do a good job.

“Now that we are here, it feels like another playoff year really in our approach and my approach.”

He’s in a good spot to march onto the Round of 8. Similar in nature to Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet last year who went all the way to the Championship 4 in the owners race but was out in the Round of 12 in the drivers battle.

Elliott has put together a strong last few months. Since the Indy road course in mid August, he’s finished in the top 11 7 times in an 8 race span including results of 2nd, 4th, 8th, 6th, 7th, 11th, 7th.

Next up is the ROVAL. He’s won two of the last four ROVAL races, was sixth in the prior one and 12th in 2021 despite a run-in with Kevin Harvick and 20th last year. A year ago, Elliott also was fourth in COTA, eighth in Sonoma, second in Road America, 16th at Indy but lined on the front row for the second to last restart and fourth in Watkins Glen after leading the final restart. This year, he’s finished fifth (Sonoma), third (Chicago), second (Indianapolis) and 32nd (Watkins Glen).

A Round of 8 berth is absolutely in play and makes you wonder what would have happened if he never missed those races for injury earlier this season as well as his one-race suspension too.