Chase Elliott continues to impress with “phenomenal night” in Texas

On Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott beat the likes of Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth to score his first career Nationwide Series win.

“It was just a phenomenal night and an honor to be racing with these guys and obviously these guys know how to get the job done.  They’ve won a lot of races,” Elliott said. “To race, pass, Kevin for the win and hold off Kyle there at the end was really cool to me and hopefully I can do that in the future this year.”

While a lot of people have been critical of the Sprint Cup drivers running Nationwide Series races, Elliott is one of the drivers who has always been a supporter and says that it’s part of what makes the win that more special.

“I think it’s good for us racers and I think it’s good for the fans, too, in the stands and at home,” Elliott explained. “They’re at the level they’re at for a reason.  They know how to get the job done and to be able to race around them and not even beating them but to be able to race with those guys and to have the honor to run around ’em and learn and get experience means a lot to me and to go beat ’em means the world to me, and to be able to have a fast race car and be able to do that, obviously those guys have fast race cars and they’re great drivers, but they gotta have good cars, too.”

Only being the second driver of the year to beat the Cup stars, Elliott credits that to crew chief Greg Ives’ work at the shop in building a good car so they would unload fast.

“We unloaded pretty fast and that allowed me to get used to the race track and not have to worry about the balance of the car right off the bat,” Elliott said. “It all goes back to the effort done at the shop and the race cars we’re bringing and hopefully we can do that in the future and hopefully we can roll with these guys throughout the year.”

Elliott ran inside the top 10 throughout the whole night, cracking the top five as the race got into the second half. After a late-race caution, Elliott would take the lead with 15 laps to go and begin to pull away from the field

“Kept trying to take a different line and Kevin kept taking my line away,” Elliott recalled racing for the lead. “I finally predicted what he was going to do on 3, 4, and I was able to get the nose in the clean air a little bit and able to get a pretty good run on him.  So that was — and that worked out and we were able to get by him and get out front and hold Kyle.”

To many, it looked as if Elliott had the clear advantage, though the second-generation star says even while leading it didn’t take it for granted as there’s many variables that can happen – such as a caution.

“My main thing was hoping and praying there wasn’t going to be a caution coming out,” Elliott said. “My restarts were pretty terrible tonight and that’s one thing I gotta get better on, hopefully next week at Darlington, but definitely Kevin was — it looked like he was a little tight and I knew our car would be a little faster if I could ever get around him.”

Based on Elliott’s first six races this year, a lot of people knew that a win would be coming soon as Elliott finished in the top six at both Las Vegas and Fontana. However, that’s no surprise as coming up through the ranks, Elliott has shown talent along the way.

Perhaps what has been even more impressive before Friday’s night win was Elliott’s ability to handle adversity.When he got into the wall at Fontana, rather than turn it into a crappy day, the high-school student stayed calm and kept improving the car to finish sixth. Elliott credits his calm demeanor to the people that have been around him as he’s grown up.

Looking at his career at the age of 18,  Elliott’s career highlights beats what some twice his age can claim in memorable wins  – Snowball Derby, All American 400, ARCA race at Pocono and the Camping World Truck Series race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park last year. Ranking them together, there is no doubt where this one stands. 

“For sure, I gotta put this one right at the top,” Elliott commented. “I don’t know — I definitely know this is an extremely special win to me and to do it at JRM with Napa Auto Parts and such a new deal that came together this off-season that I feel like just circumstances and being early in the season and whatnot I feel like this one’s got to be right up at the top.

“This one so far is hard to beat, getting your first win at anything is an honor and it’s a great feeling.  I feel like this one for sure means a lot and it’s got to be right up there at the top.”

Last December, it was unknown what Elliott would be doing in 2014. Though the beginning of January, the pieces came together as Rick Hendrick, Kelley Earnhardt, Bill Elliott and Chase were able to land NAPA Auto Parts as a sponsor for the entire Nationwide Series schedule. Six races into the year, NAPA’s gamble is certainly paying off.

“We had a meeting with them toward the end of last year and they were not 100% sure what they were going to do and we were able to have a good meeting with them and Mr. Hendrick and Kelley and myself and my dad, and we all went and had a meeting and I felt like the meeting went really well,” Elliott commented. “And it was about a few weeks later we got a call back and they said, hey, everything was going to go through and we were going to be able to go race and Mikey said going into the off-season last year I wasn’t sure what I was going to be doing and we knew that Aaron’s was leaving us and we were going to be on the hunt to find something different.

“Fortunately I had a birthday coming up that was going to allow me to run some of these other race traction and move if the opportunity was there and fortunately Napa Auto Parts came along and those guys were interested and they wanted to help us out and take a chance on us.  You know, it’s been a great relationship so far and hopefully we can keep doing that and make it better for ’em.”

Thanks to NAPA’s gamble, the siren in Dawsonville, Georgia got to ring again on Friday night. Throughout Bill Elliott’s career, Gordon G. would sound a siren at the Dawsonville Pool Room for each of his wins. The tradition was continued on Friday night as the siren sounded again.

“It’s really, really cool that they kept that going for me, and hopefully they can ring that bell some more this year,” Elliott commented. “That would be really good.  It is really loud, it’s extremely loud!  I think the cops came out on ’em last time.  They didn’t know what was going on.  Hopefully that happened again to ’em tonight.  That would be real good.”