Chase Elliott's chances of winning a second NASCAR Cup Series championship this season are hanging in the balance.

Heading into Sunday's Round of 8 race at Talladega Superspeedway, the Hendrick Motorsports star was already up against it, 23 points below the cutoff line.

Now, after a stage one wreck that saw him classified as 40th in Sunday's YellaWood 400, Elliott sits bottom of the standings, 63 points below Kyle Larson in fourth and on the bubble.

The 2020 champion now heads into Martinsville's elimination race next time out knowing only a win will see him make the Championship 4.

Elliott reacts to devastating Talladega wreck

That isn't a prospect that fazes Elliott one bit, however, which you can clearly see from his post-race reaction on Sunday.

Speaking to the media after exiting the infield care center in Alabama, the driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet chose to take an optimistic view of what happened and be brutally honest.

Elliott admits that from his viewpoint, it probably doesn't change much, and that he likely would have needed to win at Martinsville next weekend anyway if he was to advance in the playoffs.

“I’m excited about it," Elliott said on facing a must-win situation at Martinsville.

"I mean, unless we won today, we were likely going to be in a very similar position next week.

"I hate it [the wreck]. I don’t know what you do about those situations, right? Like, we weren’t back there doing anything wild or crazy. It just, it turned sideways and slid into the wreck. So I don’t know.

"Kind of thinking back through it, I wish I could have done something different, but I don’t really know what I would have done. I was just trying to get slowed up."

Multiple champions facing elimination

Elliott is not the only driver under major pressure heading into next weekends race.

After Sunday's race at Talladega, William Byron (-36), Joey Logano (-36), and Ryan Blaney are all significantly behind the cutoff line on points, whilst Kyle Larson on the bubble (-36) knows that a win from any of the above names could put him in danger.

It will certainly be interesting to see how it plays out and who joins Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe in the Championship 4.