NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon has hailed Hendrick Motorsports star Chase Elliott, despite a tough couple of years for the 2020 Cup Series champ.

Elliott has won just three races in the last three years, including two in 2025, and is looking to start the new season with the energy and momentum he felt he had at the end of last year.

Gordon, now the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, has told ESPN that he saw a different, better version of the No. 9 car driver in 2025, calling him the team's 'franchise guy'.

Now entering his 11th full-time Cup season, all of them run with Hendrick, Elliott is a popular and experienced driver in the sport despite being just 30 years old, with time and space to still step up his game.

Jeff Gordon: 'Very impressed' with Elliott's 2025

On his driver's improvement, Gordon explained: "More engaged, stepping in, elevating the team, the information he's bringing and really feeling like this is home for him. I tell him all the time, 'You're a franchise guy. This team is your team'.

"He and Alan [Gustafson, crew chief] have a very powerful relationship. Alan is an incredibly talented guy, and I think sometimes it just takes getting all the right pieces in place at the right times.

"But I was very impressed with what they did last year. I think it was a new look and perspective of their commitment to one another, to what they need to do, the details of what it takes to push yourself, push the cars and what our competitors are doing."

On the notion of the last part of the season being Elliott's best, Gordon shared the driver's sentiment that the finale at Phoenix Raceway displayed that. Elliott led 30 laps and finished 10th, but Gordon, who was sitting on the No. 9 pit box, felt Elliott was the best Hendrick car that day based on how he moved throughout the field.

Gordon agreed with Elliott that the last month and a half of the season was a marked improvement all round, especially the season-closing race at Phoenix – where Elliott led 30 laps, although he finished down in tenth.

He said: "When you put a race like that together, and you do that over enough races, it builds confidence. And when you have the final race of the season go like that, even though you're not in the championship hunt, you build on that over the offseason."

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