Birth Date: November 28, 1995 Hometown:
Team:
Chase Elliott didn’t win his rst NASCAR Cup Series race until his 99th
career start. Once he started, he’s made it look easy by winning three of
15 races.
Elliott now has six Cup Series wins, including his last at the 2019 Bank of
America Roval 400. The No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports car nished 10th in 2019.
So close for so long, the 24-year-old second-generation drive nally has
evolved into the Championship-caliber driver everyone expected. After
all, when your father is Bill Elliott, the fastest stock-car driver of all time
and a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, you face a higher degree of
expectations.
The son proved in 2018 he’s capable of making his own way through
the sport. In 2019, he proved that he’s ready to have some longevity on
racing’s biggest stage.
Elliott started his most recent season with a start at 18 in the Daytona 500,
and a decent run was derailed by a crash on lap 200. His rst top-10 of
the season would come two weeks later at Las Vegas. He would go on to
win three times in 2019.
Yet again though, he failed to make the Championship 4 after crashing
and nishing 39th at Phoenix (one week after running second at Kansas).
Getting to Victory Lane is not easy. Despite driving one of the elite cars
in NASCAR, a Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from Hendrick Motorsports, Elliott
knew nothing but frustration for more than two years in the NASCAR Cup
Series level. He nished second or third a total of 16 times before nally
taking the checkered ag Aug. 5, 2018, on the road course at Watkins
Glen International.
Moreover, he led 52 of 90 laps and showed the same kind of speed and
prowess that his legendary father used to win 44 races and the 1988 Cup
Series Championship. In the process, he excited a sport that desperately
longed for another Elliott-like homespun demeanor.
“Learning the hard way, for sure,” Elliott said of all of his early nearmisses.
“But you denitely learn things from those situations. I denitely
have. A lot of those situations were very different from one another. I think
back to some of the races and the races that I was more disappointed in.
Being in the lead in some of those situations and losing it in the closing
laps, others being kind of on offense in the closing laps and being able to
get to second. They’re all different.”
Bill Elliott was at Watkins Glen to celebrate with his son.
“You talk about numbers. I think this was his 99th start, correct? The No.
9 car wins the 99th start,” Bill Elliott said. “I won my rst Cup race at a
road course in Riverside.
84 THE OFFICIAL NASCAR 2020 PREVIEW & PRESS GUIDE
“It’s just sometimes certain things line up and you can’t ask why or
what or why things worked that particular way.”
The Dawsonville, GA native is now NASCAR’s two-time most popular
driver. He was one of three teammates to qualify for the Playoff in
2019, and seven-time Champion, Jimmie Johnson, was the only
Hendrick Motorsports driver to watch from the sidelines.
It was the rst time since his rookie season that Johnson worked with
a new crew chief.
Young Elliott backed up his road course win with victories at Dover
and Kansas in 2018. He qualied for the NASACAR Playoffs and was
eliminated after three rounds. While he had to settle for sixth in points,
he clearly made his mark. A mark, he proved he could sustain with
three more victories in 2019.
“I think the performance on track has put us in positions to capitalize.
That’s been the difference. We’ve been just in position more often.
If you can keep putting yourself in position, I think those are great
places to be,” Elliott said.
Alan Gustafson returns to guide the team for his 15th season as a
crew chief. He’s won previously with Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon at
HMS. Elliott says there’s a “re” in the Hendrick camp for 2020 thanks
to three young, emerging drivers that seem to only be improving with
every race.
2019 FEATURED DRIVERS
CHASE ELLIOT
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