You think you had a tough day after Georgia went overtime late into the night before losing the national championship game to Alabama. You didn’t have to get up before dawn, fly to Texas and drive 180 mph in a circle.
“That was a bummer, for sure,” Chase Elliott said. Born an Elliott and born in Georgia means that he is race-car driver by blood and, like a lot of other folks, a Bulldog by proximity. Yeah, he was at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Jan. 8.
“Went to bed at 2:30 that morning, up at 5:30 to go to Texas and test all day,” he recalled. “It was a long day, unfortunately for nothing. I don’t regret going. I don’t like the way it ended up, but it could have been the coolest thing ever.”
Over his mere 22 years on this planet, the past two-plus spent turning laps at stock-car racing’s highest level, Elliott has won as many Monster Energy Cup races as the Bulldogs have national titles. So, competitive disappointment is not a sensation unknown to him.
All of his sport is waiting for the heir to the Elliott racing tradition to win his first race and take a seat at the head of NASCAR’s table. There’s a siren atop the Dawsonville Pool Room poised to wail the day that he does, just like it did for dad.
“Chase Elliott winning a race would be good for everybody,” one of the more venerable drivers, Kevin Harvick, said before the start of the season. “He hasn’t done that in two years. There’s a lot of hype. He has been very competitive and doing all these things. I can promise you every person in that garage should cheer and stand up and be happy for the sport when Chase Elliott wins a race. It would be big for our sport.”
They really would like for that breakthrough to come Sunday at his home track in Atlanta in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 – a race bracing for forecast rain.
So much so that track promoters put out a call for fans to send Elliott good luck charms beforehand, receiving just under 100 of them in advance. One was a customized Georgia jersey. There was no early indication whether Elliott would choose any of them to ride along with him Sunday, a la Austin Dillon, who took a lucky penny from a young fan with him in winning last weekend’s Daytona 500.
They all failed their audition during qualifying. Elliott is starting 27th in the small 36-car field.
His on-track connection to his father, Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, grew exponentially this season when Chase moved on from the No. 24 Hendrick Chevrolet to one with a 9 on side. The same number his father drove to the majority of his 44 Cup victories.
Not like a number is going to make a car quicker, any more than No. 27 made Nick Chubb run any faster. But it is at least another talisman that might bring some good fortune. Couldn’t hurt.
“(No. 9) is pretty special to me just because of the history I’ve had with it. Obviously, I would have never chosen that number when I started racing if it wasn’t for my dad. I have a lot of history with it myself, with our championship in ’14 (Xfinity, then Nationwide, series) and all my short-track races – all with that number.
“I’ve spent a lot of time with that number, in a lot of photos and races that I’ve won with it, so it’s kind of home to me. It’s always my favorite number. If you could choose your favorite number to race, I think everyone would, right?”
With a new number came a new Chevy design this season and slightly new edge.
Elliott hinted before the season began that he was well beyond the point in which he needed to be the deferential new guy on the track. He was a veteran of a dust-up/feud with Denny Hamlin last season, and he just wasn’t going to get pushed around by anyone anymore. He’s even got the beard stubble now to look just that much tougher.
“I think there were times, not just in that (Hamlin) situation, where I was kind of taken advantage of in how I raced people, maybe (giving) too much respect at times,” Elliott said in January. “At some point, you either stand up for yourself or you continue to get taken advantage of. I’d rather choose option A over B.”
Sure enough, Elliott’s aggression early in the Daytona 500 stood out like a loud growl in a library. He made what usually would be a late-lap maneuver – a risky block on Brad Keselowski – just halfway through the race, setting off a big wreck and sending him spinning hard into the wall.
How his personality will evolve over the course of a presumably long career will be of great fan interest. His father was a shoo-in to be voted most popular driver every year. And, “I think (Chase) already won the 2018 most popular driver award,” joked his teammate, seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.
In looking for other traits the two might have in common, well, those Elliotts just might be slow starters by nature. When dad advises him to be patient while awaiting that first win, to enjoy the ride – “I’m a realistic type guy,” Bill said – he speaks from experience.
Coming from far more humble racing beginnings, Bill went through 115 Cup races before winning his first. Chase is scheduled to start his 79th Cup race Sunday.
“There are some similarities how he got started and how I have,” Chase said. “He finished second a lot before he won a race, too. Kind of weird. I think I’ve run second almost as many times as he had before he won his first race (the count is Bill eight, Chase seven at this stage).” In one four-race stretch last year, Chase was a runner-up three times.
“I’d have to start winning a lot and doing really good before we could talk about any other similarities from this point forward,” Elliott rightfully acknowledged.
It is important for all to occupy the moment in this Elliott Watch. These guys go so fast it is hard to imagine any of them getting ahead of themselves, but that is the temptation here.
When someone asked Elliott during a Friday news conference to react to another driver’s comment that even NASCAR may not be prepared for the enormity of his first win, Elliott gave such an old and wise response. No, he refused to get ahead of himself.
“I'm just trying to go and compete for wins,” he said. “I'm not in a position to be worried about what is on the other side of something that's not promised, right? When something is not promised to you, how is it fair to look on the other side of that?
“I'm living on this side of it. I'm living in reality. The reality is I'm 0-78, that I need to go and do my job better and try to win some races.”
