Before he went out for his first big-boy race on the Atlanta Motor Speedway main stage Sunday, Chase Elliott got one last earful from dad.
So, what profound wisdom did Bill Elliott lay upon his boy, while putting a fatherly arm around him?
“He said, ‘Good luck and don’t do what you did last week,’” the young Elliott relayed.
The best advice is often the simplest advice, especially for folk from the plain-spoken precinct of Dawsonville. From Bill’s lips to Chase’s ear — the boy did good. Which means he didn’t do what he did last week: Go all squirrely in the first quarter of the Daytona 500 and then spend the rest of the day limping around the track like a 1975 Gremlin at rush hour.
Rather, he chose quite the opposite tact for the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500: Run the distance in sight of the leaders, remain undented and then come away with his best finish in seven career Sprint Cup starts (eighth).
“Most important was finishing this week. Last week was a bummer for sure,” Elliott said at the finish, applying some ointment to that Daytona boo-boo.
“A big goal today was to try to run 500 miles, try to stay on the lead lap. I’m really proud once the green flag dropped, we were able to move forward and gain some ground,” he said. Elliott started the day in 24th position and spent all afternoon picking his way through the strung-out field and picking up positions on his way to his first-ever top-10 finish.
Sunday was a day for taking stock of stock car racing's eras. The past and the present intersected as Jimmie Johnson won the day and tied the late, great Dale Earnhardt for career victories (76).
And the future had itself a promising afternoon with Elliott, a teammate of both Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr., completing a grand day for Hendrick Motorsports after their considerable follies the week before. As for Elliott, a 20-year-old much-ballyhooed rookie who ran a handful of Sprint Cup races last year, his finish far surpassed his best showing to date, a 16th at Richmond in 2015.
The boss was pleased.
“We’re real proud of Chase,” Rick Hendrick said. “He drove one of the smartest races. The car was real good all day. He drove it from the back up to sixth (his best position of the day), he was battling guys like Brad (Keselowski, ninth) and Kyle (Busch, third) all day. He showed a lot of maturity. A great day.”
The real wow moment of an upbeat day, Elliott said, came at the driver introductions. Then, emerging into the bright sunlight before the home crowd, he for the first time received a large scale welcome from an AMS audience. Just a little different than all those other days as a boy running on the smaller road layout in the Legends and Bandolaro division here before a few family and friends.
He certainly wasn’t racing the toy cars anymore. This race went green for better than 300 miles at the start, placing on all in the field a prolonged strain of unbroken concentration and difficult handling of heavy rides on an always tricky track. Yes, there are demands to this sport more than just putting one elbow out the window, one hand on the wheel and turning left.
“Longest green flag run I’ve ever been a part of for sure,” Elliott said. “I’m definitely wore out and I will be going to bed early.” They are so cute at that age when they’re tuckered out.
He wasn’t too tired to pick nits. It wasn’t 10 minutes after crossing the finish line that Elliott was counting his mistakes and vowing to correct them before the automotive circus goes West. Most nettlesome was the last re-start on an overtime finish, in which the kid gave up a couple places.
“I gave up time on pit row. A lot of instances where I felt I lost a lot of time — getting into pit row, getting into the pit box, that last restart. All small things that go a long way,” he said.
Elliott’s greatest reward may await his first prolonged conversation with his victorious teammate, after all the fuss over catching up to Earnhardt’s memory dims to a whisper.
For Johnson has some real pearls to throw the kid’s way, something a little more in-depth than dad offered at the beginning of the day.
“I was really happy to see him having a good day,” Johnson said. “It reminded me of my rookie season run here, seeing the leaders all day long, staying on the lead lap, (enduring) a lot of green flag runs.” In his first race at Atlanta during his first full season (2002), Johnson finished third.
“I still look back and say that Atlanta race let me know that I could win, let me know that I could race with the best guys in the business. I can’t wait to share that with him. He’s a very humble guy. I want him to build the confidence that he can do that.”
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