Elliott trying to put Dover disappointment aside

Chase Elliott admits he's not over what happened last weekend at Dover, where he again suffered heartache in the pursuit of his first victory. Actually, Elliott doesn't see the disappointment of having the lead snatched away with less than two laps to go ever dissipating.

"Oh, it still sticks with you for sure," Elliott said Thursday night in Charlotte after revealing his No. 9 Chevrolet for 2018 (below). "You're never going to forget days like that, and that's just – I could sit here and lie to you and tell you that, yeah, I've forgotten about it. But no. You're never going to forget about what could have been in those situations."

What Elliott will try to shift his focus to is remembering what went right in the Apache Warrior 400 instead of what went wrong. There should be no dwelling on how the race was lost. Elliott believes there is a lesson to take away from Dover.

"If things do come full circle and you find yourself in that situation again, [knowing] what you would do to prevent that from happening and change the result," he said.

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As for what the lesson was, Elliott wasn't interested in sharing.

Next for Elliott to try and grab that elusive first win is Charlotte, where Elliott qualified third last season and was running in the top five when he was caught up in an accident on a restart. After showing speed at Chicagoland three weeks ago, a mile-and-a-half speedway like Charlotte, Elliott feels good about the potential for this weekend.

"I think we've been better over the past three weeks than we had been probably all year, minus just a couple races here and there," Elliott said of his No. 24 team's performance in the Round of 16 at Chicago, New Hampshire, and Dover.

"Our pit stops have been really good. The execution on pit road not only with our stops but with our race strategy has been spot on, and I really think just mentally, team-wise, we're all in a really good spot right now."

Putting what happened at Dover aside, Elliott is confident with the speed and pace his team has had, should more opportunities arise, they can finish the day off. The only deficit Elliott looks at is when it comes to the number of playoff points he has (six) to those at the top of the standings, such as Martin Truex Jr., who has 59.

But while Elliott may sit at the bottom of the board as things reset to start the Round of 12, he likes how things have been shaping up.

"People don't expect us to do a whole lot, I feel like," said Elliott. "Sometimes that's a good spot to be in."