Chase Elliott Photo – Matt Sullivan/Getty Images
As a 19-year-old Georgia native, Chase Elliott is one of NASCAR’s brightest young stars. He’s consistently won at every level of motorsport from ARCA to the Camping World Truck Series. As the son of NASCAR hall of fame driver Bill Elliott, winning may literally be in his DNA. As a racer, the young Elliott is mature, poised and humble. He is extremely honest with himself and is his own toughest critic.
This rare set of characteristics will serve him well in 2016, as he moves full-time into the Sprint Cup Series. Elliott is taking over driving duties in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet , now driven by four-time champion Jeff Gordon. He will have some big shoes to fill, but I feel the fast ‘young gun’ has the feet to fill them.
Referring to the move to Hendrick Motorsports, Elliott said “I know how rare this opportunity is and I will work as hard as I can to make everyone proud.”
As a 44-time race winner and 1988 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion ‘Million Dollar Bill’ Elliott has offered his son some great advice, saying the sport isn’t always going to be easy and it’s difficult to get to the top and stay there.
He followed with ” You’re only as good as you were in that particular race. So to me it’s a matter of trusting your ability, but also keeping those good people around you who can get you to that next level.”
Chase Elliott feels that much of his racing success comes from being surrounded by great people/great teams, both at JR Motorsports in the XFINITY Series and Hendrick Motorsports in the Sprint Cup Series.
Chase Elliott has already had more than a few milestones in his budding young career.
Upon winning the XFINITY Series title in 2014, he became NASCAR’s youngest national touring series champion. Chase was the first driver to win both the championship and rookie of the year in the same season. He won his first Camping World Truck Series race at Canadian Tire Motorsport park in only his seventh series’ start.
This season Elliott made five Sprint Cup Series starts at Martinsville, Charlotte, Indy, Darlington and Richmond to gain experience.
When talking about the steep learning curve Elliott said “I think it’s definitely been a big learning experience. Definitely Martinsville, as everybody saw, was a bad day for me. Definitely not the way I wanted to get things started. I think since then , I thought Richmond went really good. Indy was okay, had a good time at Charlotte, thought we had a good car there and got some damage.” He went on to say “These guys are here in the Sprint Cup Series for a reason and I’ve got some work to do. I have to get better.”
Personally, I believe this will happen in time and then the championships will follow.
Much like Rick Hendrick, I have much praise for this instinctive driver.
Rick Hendrick commented on the young Elliott “Chase brings the kind of intangibles that make him the total package as a driver. Not only is he a special talent inside the race car, but there is a natural combination of competitiveness, work ethic and smarts that you rarely see. Chase’s personality and demeanor make him popular with fans, teammates and sponsors.”
Chase’s natural talent paired with his maturity should give this young driver a fast rise to the top. As a fan, I look forward to watching what I hope will become a long and fruitful NASCAR career.