NASCAR Cup Series
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez
Team Chevy Driver Quotes
June 13, 2025
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series race weekend at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
Media Availability Quotes:
I’m curious, what does a Georgia native do for fun in Mexico City?
“Well, we came down about a couple of months ago, so I had a little bit of an idea of what to expect. But yeah, I got in last night; ate dinner and went to bed, and then got up and came to the track this morning. So I haven’t done anything, so far. I think tomorrow, probably tomorrow afternoon, we’ll have some time to maybe find a good restaurant or something along those lines. But the schedule here is kind of spread out. We’re at the track pretty early in the morning and we don’t get back until later in the evening. So really, it’s kind of all about the race for me, at least this trip. Not a lot of time to mess around for a long time.”
I passed you and Carl (Edwards) in the garage this morning. I found it kind of humorous that you guys kind of admitted you all never really talked or seen each other. He’s been gone for a while. Now you guys are talking two weeks in a row. One, what is it like to get to know Carl a little bit? How important is it to have him as a storyteller in the sport, being in the garage, talking to you guys and picking all of your brains?
“Yeah, I mean, I’ve met Carl before. You know, I raced with him my rookie year in 2016. I guess that was his last — yeah, I think that was his last year or so.
Yeah, I know we raced together at least one season. And I remember having, you know, some conversation with him throughout the course of that season. But certainly, since he’s been gone, I’ve not had any communication with him or contact at all. He’s always been a guy that I’ve appreciated and admired. Just kind of how he’s handled his business, I think is admirable over the years. He is a great storyteller. He’s always been very professional and he does good in front of cameras. But he’s also a good guy away from that, too. I think he’s good choice for Amazon. I have not gone back and watched the races thus far. But I will say this, everyone that has come up to me – you know, friends or fans or whatever that have watched the races over the last few weeks – have had nothing but incredible things to say. And it seems like it’s been really well done, at least that’s kind of been the perception that’s out there that I’ve heard. So, I think Carl has a big role in that. I think he does a really good job.
You know, I’ve enjoyed talking to him over the last couple weeks and I look forward to spending some more time with him at some point down the road. I think he has a lot of great insight. He raced for a long time. He stepped away, but his re-involvement now, I think he’s learned kind of how things have changed… what’s changed and what hasn’t. I enjoy talking to people like that that just have a different perspective because you can always learn something from them. He’s definitely been a fun guy to talk to and, like I said, hopefully spend some more time with down the road.”
Chase, after going through the track walk, is there anything that kind of stood out to you, what you saw? And also, how would you view the track limits or how NASCAR may rule on that?
“Yeah, you know, I really don’t know. You know, in the sim, which is all I kind of have to go off of, at least at this point, you didn’t have tire barriers. And I didn’t, at that point in time, I didn’t know what they were going to police and what they weren’t. So, you know, I ran laps where I was really aggressive running off the road and kind of taking advantage of different areas that I felt like might be worth a little bit of time. But I would say the majority of laps that I ran, you know by choice, was just really staying inside the lines because I had a feeling that might be a little more of a reality.
But, you know, there are some areas that I think you’ll take advantage of off the racetrack. I think the tire barriers have, especially through (turns) eight and nine or whatever numbers… I don’t know which track map you’re looking at, right, the numbers change. But the last two, that’s before you get to the stadium section, for clarity, the tire packs, where they’re located through that section, I think will significantly change how at least I was approaching that section in the sim. But I do think –- you know, look, we have some practice to get some time on the track. I think everyone’s going to be super aggressive with taking every advantage that you can take and probably stepping over that line. And if you get caught, you’ll get caught, and you’ll learn what you can and can’t do. So my intention is to go and push the limits as far as I can push them. I’ll probably step over them, you know, at different points in time. And I want to know for sure what’s going to be called and what wasn’t.
COTA was a really interesting situation because, you know, it was a section of the track that I thought was off limits. And halfway through the race, everyone started running on it and I thought — well, I guess I’ll do it, too. So I just don’t want that.
I think it just, you know, there was obviously a little bit of miscommunication on what was and what wasn’t. So I want to make sure I do my due diligence to know that I can take advantage of areas if they’re not being called.”
You were talking about the stadium section. Coming in there, you’ve never seen anything like that in the track. I mean, that’s really cool for you. What do you think it would be like going through there at speed with racing with all those fans surrounding you?
“Slow speed. Going through there at very slow speed. But the environment, I think, is really neat. And, you know, to my knowledge, I don’t think I’ve ever raced anywhere that has that type of section to a racetrack where you exit in between two grandstands like that. So it is really cool. I’ll give it to them. They have a really cool setup through there. It’s a great place for the fans to watch and kind of see who’s in position to win the race, you know, right there coming to the last turn. So, yeah, it’d be an awesome place to watch a race. I’m sure it’ll be a good show for them on Sunday. But with how slow we’re going to be going through, I think that it has potential to be pretty rough through that section, right? It’s going to depend on who you’re racing around; what kind of respect is expected or shown from whoever is in position to have an opportunity to run you over.”
When you think of tracks that you’ve raced at, like COTA, Chicago or Daytona, an iconic tracks like that, what would that part rank at some point when you look at all this?
“I think it’s just so foreign to me. I don’t even know it right now. I still haven’t made a lap. A part of what makes some of those places that you mentioned special is like race day environments and experiences and seeing that stuff firsthand. So I would like to just experience it and kind of see what it’s like to know where it ranks and understand it a little better.”
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