NASCAR: Elliott's confidence grows after Texas top-5 finish

Chase Elliott looked nothing like a rookie on Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway.

Despite starting at the back for a transmission change, the 20-year-old quickly cut his way through the field and went door to door with some of NASCAR's best in the process. By the end of the race, it was good enough for his first top-5 finish in only his 12th Sprint Cup start.

And while it was an impressive accomplishment, Elliott wasn't totally satisfied, believing he is capable of much more despite his youth and inexperience at NASCAR's highest level.

"It was definitely a step in the right direction but we're not happy running fifth," said Elliott (LEFT). "We want to be contenders and I feel like we have a group of guys that are capable of doing it. We're going to keep digging because there's a long way to go and I think we can start to roll with these guys."

Elliott has enjoyed a great deal of early success in the iconic No. 24. This was his fourth top 10 in seven races this season and he's up to 14th in the championship. He's also taken an early lead in the Rookie of the Year race over Ryan Blaney as well.

He even had an outside shot to win the race on a gutsy pit call by crew chief Alan Gustafson. Elliott took just two tires during the caution with 46 laps to go. He restarted third behind Martin Truex Jr. and Austin Dillon and was running second a lap later when a caution fell behind them.

Had the race stayed green, he likely would have caught Truex for the lead and at least had a chance to hold off those with four tires.

"You hope so but you never know how those things will play out," Elliott said. "Martin was really good and I feel like he had the best car throughout the race but you ever know because these races come down to short runs anyway. I could sit here and say yes, no or whatever but it doesn't matter what I think, because that's not how it played out."

If not for somewhat fluky crashes at Daytona and Las Vegas, Elliott would likely have cracked the top 10 of the championship standings by now. Even so, he's only one spot behind where Jeff Gordon was in 2015 following the first seven races of the season.

"I've had a lot of fun working with these guys so far," Elliott said of his Hendrick Motorsports crew. "They are a classy group. They are so focused. They don't mess around and they come to the racetrack prepared to do their jobs. I like that. We don't like to get involved in any of the messes that go on around here sometimes. We just come here to do our jobs."

Spoken more like a veteran rather than the sport's top rookie.