Chase Elliott Doesn’t Want to Wreck Early Again

HAMPTON, Ga.– Asked how he’ll bounce back at Atlanta, Chase Elliott replied, “not wrecking out on Lap 20 would be a good start.”

The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet had high hopes for the Daytona 500 after scoring the pole. Those were quickly dashed on Lap 20 after his car spun off the exit of Turn 4 and came to a halt on the infield grass.

Elliott, who placed 16th in the first practice session for the Sprint Cup Series, appeared in the media center on Friday to speak to the NASCAR media corp to answer questions.

I asked him how he was planning to bounce back from his disappointing run in the 500 and here’s what he had to say.

“Not wrecking on lap 20 would be a good start. To get going this weekend and see how things are today. I’m excited like I said. Daytona is week one, but it’s such an animal of its own and a unique race. Everybody I think realizes that Atlanta is that first week of the places you’re going to see the majority of the rest of the season. We recognize that Daytona counts too. So that’s disappointing to have a disappointing day last Sunday. But we’re already here at Atlanta, so getting drowned in last week isn’t going to do any good. We realize that and will try to move forward. Having a good weekend would be great. We just want to do our jobs and do the best we can.”

He was asked about being in front of his home crowd for the first time in a Cup race and said, “We want to try and get things going and have a little better week than last week,” he said. “We’re all excited about it. I know Alan (Gustafson) and everybody has been working hard in the offseason to improve our mile-and-a-half program. I think they feel really confident in it with some things they’ve been working on. I’m excited to get out there today in practice and see how we stack up.”

He was also asked about Stewart-Haas Racing’s decision to move to Ford in 2017.

“For them, it’s a business decision, as they said,” Elliott said. “I can’t really say a lot for them because I’m not part of that organization. I’m excited to be a part of Hendrick Motorsports and a part of Chevrolet.”