Driver: Chase Elliott
Team: JR Motorsports
Crew chief: Greg Ives
Owners: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (listed owner for the No. 9 team), Rick Hendrick, Kelley Earnhardt Miller
Primary Sponsor: NAPA AUTO PARTS
Associate Sponsors: Great Clips, Rocky Ridge Custom Trucks, Valvoline, Sage Fruit, Axalta
Chase Elliott, the driver of the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet, clinched the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship after scoring a fifth-place finish today at Phoenix International Raceway. The rookie driver from Dawsonville, Ga., will carry an insurmountable 52-point lead into next week’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. This marks the first national touring series championship for JR Motorsports, the company owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr.
A FRATERNITY OF CHAMPIONS: Elliott becomes the 24th driver to win a NASCAR Nationwide Series championship in this, the 33rd year of the series.
NASCAR’S YOUNGEST CHAMPION: At the age of 18 years, 11 months and 18 days, Elliott will officially become the youngest driver to win a championship in any of NASCAR’s top-three national touring series next Saturday. He will break the record previously held by Brian Vickers, the 2003 Nationwide Series champion at the age of 20 years, 0 months and 22 days.
ON THE BRINK OF HISTORY: If Elliott is named 2014 Sunoco Rookie of the Year, he would become the first driver in any NASCAR national series to win the championship and rookie of the year in the same season. The award’s winner is not determined until the end of the season because its format factors off-track merit as well as on-track performance. Elliott entered the Phoenix race weekend with a 52-point lead in the ROY standings. Three former rookie-of-the-year winners who came close to winning series championships were James Hylton (Sprint Cup in 1966), Kurt Busch (Camping World Truck in 2000) and Kyle Busch (Nationwide in 2004).
CHAMPIONSHIP ‘KNOW HOW’: This marks NAPA AUTO PARTS’ third championship since becoming a NASCAR team sponsor in 1996. NAPA won championships with Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) and driver Ron Hornaday, Jr., in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 1996 and 1998. This is NAPA’s first season as a sponsorship partner of JR Motorsports.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON: Bill Elliott, the 1988 Sprint Cup champion, and Chase Elliott, the 2014 Nationwide Series champion, become the fifth father/son duo to win NASCAR national series championships. They join an esteemed list that includes Lee Petty (Sprint Cup in 1954, 1958 and 1959) and Richard Petty (Sprint Cup in 1964, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1979), Ned Jarrett (Sprint Cup in 1961 and 1965) and Dale Jarrett (Sprint Cup in 1999), David Pearson (Sprint Cup in 1966, 1968 and 1969) and Larry Pearson (Nationwide in 1986 and 1987), and Dale Earnhardt Sr. (Sprint Cup in 1980, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1994) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Nationwide in 1998 and 1999).
A LONG TIME COMING: JR Motorsports’ first Nationwide championship comes in its ninth season in the series. The company started competing full time in the NNS in 2006 (it entered one race in 2005). Mark Martin delivered JRM its first victory on March 1, 2008, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Since then JR Motorsports has earned 21 victories. The 2014 season has featured nine victories from four drivers – Kevin Harvick (4), Chase Elliott (3), Regan Smith (1), and Kasey Kahne (1). Elliott’s top-finishing points position supplants the company’s previous best of third (achieved three times by Brad Keselowski in 2008 and 2009 and Regan Smith in 2013).
DECORATED DRIVERS: While this is JR Motorsports’ first championship, the company’s current stable of drivers has five Nationwide Series titles among them – Earnhardt Jr. with two (1998, 1999), Harvick with two (2001, 2006) and Elliott with one (2014).
OWNERSHIP HAS ITS PRIVILEGES: Elliott’s championship marks the third for Earnhardt Jr. as an owner. His first company, Chance 2, won Nationwide Series championships with driver Martin Truex Jr., in 2004 and 2005 in partnership with Dale Earnhardt Inc.
THE HENDRICK CONNECTION: Elliott is the fifth driver to win his first career championship with Rick Hendrick, co-owner of JR Motorsports. Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Brian Vickers and Jack Sprague were the others. This is Hendrick’s 16th overall championship and second in the Nationwide Series.
STORYBOOK SEASON: Elliott’s championship-winning campaign has featured three victories – the Texas 300 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 4, the VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway on April 11, and EnjoyIllinois.com 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on July 19. His Texas win came in only his sixth career start, making him the second-youngest winner in Nationwide Series history behind Joey Logano, who in 2008 was three months younger than Elliott was in 2014 when scoring his first victory. However, Elliott became the youngest multiple-race winner with his victory the following week at Darlington.
BOWTIE BRIGADE: This marks the 18th time that a Chevrolet driver has won the Nationwide Series championship. Chevrolet is close to winning the Bill France Performance Cup, which is awarded to the Nationwide Series’ top manufacturer, for the 16th time. Chevrolet entered the Phoenix race weekend with a 34-point lead in the manufacturers’ standings.
POWER SOURCE: This will be the 15th NASCAR championship and second Nationwide Series championship for Hendrick Motorsports engines, which supplies the motors for all JR Motorsports teams. Hendrick Motorsports engines won its first NNS championship in 2003 with Brian Vickers.
PEACH STATE CHAMPIONS: Elliott becomes only the second Georgia-born NASCAR champion. His father and 1988 Sprint Cup champion, Bill Elliott, was the first. There are three others who were not born in Georgia but were longtime state residents and considered “from Georgia.” Red Byron (born in Anniston, Ala., but resident of Georgia most of his life) was the first NASCAR modified champion in 1948 and first strictly stock champion in 1949. Tim Flock (born in Fort Payne, Ala., but resident of Atlanta, Ga.) won Sprint Cup titles in 1952 and 1955. Rex White (born in Taylorsville, N.C., but later moved to Georgia and still resides in Fayetteville, Ga.) won the 1960 Sprint Cup championship. Before the formation of NASCAR in 1948, there were other drivers from the peach state considered “national champion” drivers, including Roy Hall (Dawsonville, Ga.) in 1940, 1941 and 1946, and Lloyd Seay (Dawsonville, Ga.) in 1938 and 1941. Ed Samples (Atlanta, Ga.) won stock car championships in 1946 and 1949.
DAWSONVILLE DIAMONDS: Bill and Chase Elliott aren’t the first racers to come from the town of Dawsonville, Ga. In fact, the small Georgia community has given stock car racing a long line of successful racers not named Elliott. The list includes:
• Ted Chester, car owner – Sprint Cup champion in 1952 with driver Tim Flock.
• Gober Sosebee, driver – winner of two Sprint Cup races; two-time winner on Daytona’s beach and road course prior to NASCAR’s inception in 1948.
• Bernard Long, driver – Daytona’s beach and road course winner in 1941.
• Roy Hall, driver – national champion in 1939.
• Lloyd Seay, driver – winner of more than 40 races; inaugural class of Georgia Racing Hall of Fame (2002).
• Harry Melling, owner – NASCAR champion owner in 1988 with driver Bill Elliott; won Daytona with Elliott in 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1991.
• Raymond Parks, owner – won the first two NASCAR championships as Red Byron’s car owner in 1948 (modified class) and 1949 (strictly stock class, now known as Sprint Cup); inaugural class of Georgia Racing Hall of Fame (2002); inducted into International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2009.
RING MASTER: Greg Ives has won championships in six of his 11 years in the sport of NASCAR. Joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2004 as a mechanic in the 24/48 shop, Ives quickly elevated to an engineering role on the No. 48 team. He was part of Jimmie Johnson’s historic run of five Sprint Cup championships from 2006-10. The Bark River, Mich.-native came to JR Motorsports as a rookie crew chief in 2013. Following the season, Ives will return to Hendrick Motorsports to begin his new role as Earnhardt Jr.’s crew chief on the No. 88 Nationwide Insurance / Diet Mountain Dew team.
QUICK WORK: Chase Elliott is the first driver since Brad Keselowski in 2010 to clinch the Nationwide Series championship before the final race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The last non-Sprint Cup Series driver to secure the title early was Martin Truex Jr., in 2004.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS: With Elliott clinching the top spot, the quest now for JR Motorsports is for Regan Smith to finish second. If Smith holds on to the runner-up position after next week’s season-finale at Homestead-Miami, JR Motorsports would become the first team in 14 years to finish first and second in the series point standings. The Greg Pollex-owned ppc Racing did it in 2000 with drivers Jeff Green and Jason Keller.
AS GOOD AS IT GETS: If Smith finishes second in the 2014 Nationwide Series standings, JR Motorsports will have successfully finished first and second in each of its racing divisions this year – the Nationwide Series with Elliott and Smith, and the NASCAR Whelen All American Series at Hickory Motor Speedway with late model drivers Josh Berry and William Byron.
