NASCAR CUP SERIES
NORTH WILKESBORO SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
JULY 17, 2026
Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro ZL1 and the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Silverado RST, met with the media in advance of running double duty in the NASCAR Cup and Craftsman Truck Series at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Media Availability Quotes:
You have a very busy schedule this weekend. A lot of racing for you in different series. Just talk a little bit about why you’re looking forward to this weekend.
“Yeah, it’s definitely been a been a busy couple days, for sure, but it’s been fun. I haven’t done a lot of short track racing, like late model cars, in a while, so it’s just kind of neat to have that opportunity and go and run. Appreciate Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) asking me to drive his late model stock, and then obviously the FR8 Racing guys for letting me get in their straight rail car. I figured if I was going to be here, might as well try and do them both.
And then, yeah, totally separate from that, the truck opportunity came up to run that, as well. So yeah, I’m going to have plenty of laps on track this weekend, and hopefully they go alright. We’ll see.”
Now that you’re potentially just two rounds away from the million-dollar prize, how much attention are you going to pay to Todd Gilliland this weekend?
“Oh, yeah, it’d be nice to win, for sure. You know, over the last couple of seasons being involved in the In-Season Challenge, it’s not something that I’m overly consumed over, you know? I can say that with a lot of confidence. You just know in the back of your mind, kind of similar to the points situation in general, if you’re going out and you’re doing your job and you’re performing at a high level, then you’re likely going to take care of the other things. So I kind of look at that in a really similar light, but I do think it is really fun. I think it’s a really good thing for just the sport, in general, to kind of have something else going on in the middle of the year. I know we’re getting close to the Chase cutoff, but still, it’s kind of neat to have another little side quest going on. I think it’d be cool to win it. We made a good run at it last year, but couldn’t quite get it done, so hopefully we can make it happen this season.”
We mentioned earlier the quadruple-header, the two CARS Tour races, the Trucks tomorrow, and obviously, the Cup car on Sunday. How are you kind of handling the weekend physically and mentally as far as preparation and compartmentalizing the four races?
“Yeah, I mean, definitely the Cup stuff has my main focus, right? That’s just kind of where my head is at mentally and just making sure that I’m not letting anything else pull me away from what I’m kind of looking for in my car for Sunday night. So, I’ve kind of been using it a little bit as just extra laps on track and just helping me think about how I can be better Sunday, I think, more than anything else. But certainly, you know, all the cars drive different — like the pro car drives different than the late model stock, and the truck is going to be different than both of those. And then certainly, the Cup car drives like nothing out there that they have to offer. So, I think all those things, it’s a fun challenge and one that I haven’t really done a lot of. I did some of it early on. I remember jumping back and forth between, you know, Saturday and Sunday cars there early in my Cup career, but I don’t know that I’ve ever done four in a weekend and in four different cars. So, yeah, just trying to balance all that.”
It’s been a while since I’ve driven a late model stock car – like, I don’t even know, probably 10 years. It’s been a minute. The last time I did it, Denny used to do his showdown race back in the day. He did it once at Richmond that I ran, and then he did it a couple times at South Boston, if I’m not mistaken, and I ran two or three of those and that was it. I had a lot of fun with it. It was cool, it just wasn’t the path that I came up on. The pro cars, the straight rail late model cars, that’s more of kind of my background and what I grew up racing the most of. So, it’s been kind of fun jumping back and forth; seeing the difference in those two cars directly during the same day. I had a lot of fun with that yesterday.
It’s been a challenge. It’s been tough. Those guys are really good. You know, they do it all the time. They’re really, really, really good drivers and teams that are super competitive, and all that’s been a lot of fun. So, yeah, just kind of figuring out as I go. I haven’t driven a truck in a minute either. I’m not sure why I got hired for all this, but I’m here and I’m going to give it my best go.”
I know for Cup car and the Truck, with Chevy, you have plenty of sim time and things you can do to prepare. This late model stock deal, Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) talked about how it came about when Kyle (Busch) was supposed to be in the car, and you mentioned this Fr8 Racing deal was almost completely last second. How have you been preparing for the late model side of things?
“Really, just yesterday. It’s a little easier, I think from my standpoint, coming into it knowing that – hey, we have two or three practice sessions that I can get acclimated with the cars, actually get some laps on track and get myself up to speed. I know with the Truck stuff, we have more of a full practice today, but normally it would be like 20 minutes or something on the Cup side. So I think that probably drives some of those things a little more than anything else… the amount of time on-track. So for me, it was fine. I knew I was going to have some laps to kind of get myself readjusted. I leaned on that more than anything.”
Did you feel comfortable going from the pro straight rail to a late model stock chassis throughout practice yesterday? Do you feel comfortable through tonight, Saturday and the rest of the weekend with jumping constantly to completely different cars?
“I do, yeah. I mean, it’s been a challenge, like I said, for sure. But I’ve had fun with it. Again, I think for me, my mindset is all about Cup car. In the back of my mind, I’m like, okay, how can I be better on Sunday? Just the extra laps and all that I think will hopefully help.
But yeah, the rest of it has just been kind of learning as I go. I felt like by the end of the day yesterday, I felt a lot better about jumping back and forth and kind of what I needed to do differently between the two cars to at least do the best I could. Certainly wasn’t where I wanted to be, but it was an improvement throughout the day, so hopefully tonight is another step of that.”
There’s a new front bumper package in place on the Cup side this weekend that’s designed to have a little bit more give to it on contact. Do you have any anticipation of how you’ll manage that and how it’ll react, or is it just going to be kind of wait and see once you get out there?
“Yeah, I think probably a wait and see situation. I mean, they’re pretty stout. You know, I had to remind myself a couple weeks ago at Chicago running the Saturday race just how fragile those cars are and how easy it used to be to destroy a front bumper, like on a restart stack, or even just hitting somebody too hard, trying to give them a shove. I remember going into that race thinking, you know, I need to not just run over somebody like we can on Sunday. It’s crazy how hard you can hit someone on a restart or bump drafting at the speedway’s. Atlanta was a great example of that. I mean, you’re running over the person in front of you and you would think it would destroy your car, but it doesn’t. The harder you hit them on a drafting track like that, the further you push them out.
So, I’m not sure. I think the margin was so far down the road of just durability and really strong. I’m not sure how far you have to detune that to make a difference, but we’ll see.”
There are several adjustments for Daytona next month to try to improve the racing. Do you wish you had a little bit of a practice maybe before the race, instead of just going out and qualifying and racing?
“Not being super familiar with all the details, I think it’s a little hard for me to say. But it just seems like every time we have practice at the speedways, everybody will run for a few minutes and then you wind up sitting there for 45 minutes or something. So I can see both sides of that.
To your point, you know, maybe with a change, it might be a good idea. But also at the same time, I could also see people not participating, which obviously leads us down the road of being on TV and not having cars on track. That ends up being a bad result, which has led us to where we are today, which I totally understand that too. So see both sides of the coin. For me personally, I’m good either way.
Do you have any expectation of how Sunday’s race is going to unfold in terms of tire wear, just the cautions, anything like that?
“I mean, I would have to imagine pretty similar to the All-Star Race last year. You know, the top became super dominant and it became really hard to pass. You saw that with kind of how (Christopher) Bell won the race and he had to get pretty aggressive there to do it.
But look, I think that the racetrack is going to promote that type of physicality, just by the way it’s shaped. When you get these racetracks that the top lane and momentum becomes king throughout a run, I think you’re going to have some of that.
As far as the tire wear goes, you know, the marbles on the racetrack last year, I remember that kind of being a big thing and how dirty the grooves got that you weren’t running in. That became a challenge because as we started pushing the groove up, you were doing it at pretty high risk because if you got just a little too high, you were going to get sucked up into the dirt. So, yeah, I’m not sure what the cutoff is of when tires are going to become more important. I don’t think you’re going to pit from the top-five; put on four tires, start last and drive back up to the lead. I could be totally wrong, but I think at some point in time you will have a period of tire wear and heat that will equalize some older tires to some fresher ones. So, as always, that’s a balance every week. That’s just something you have to kind of figure out as we go and see what the race feels like. But it’s hot and that’ll play a factor, as well.”
Historically, races at North Wilkesboro Speedway, and even in the All-Star Race, there’s been long green flag runs, so I’m curious if you guys had any conversations about maybe going to have to make some green flag pit stops and what that’s going to be like here because that’s not something you guys have done here…
“Yeah, I think we will, for sure, at some point in time. I mean, it’s 450 laps, right? That’s a lot of laps, so I would have to imagine at some point in time, you’re going to have to have a green flag stop in there. Might not, but I could see it. I mean, we have them at Martinsville, and that’s a 500 lap race. It’s doesn’t happen a lot, but it does happen from time to time. And on a racetrack like this too where, again, you kind of get that outside lane motoring, you get some momentum rolling and we get strung out a little bit; I could see some green flag stops coming into play. I kind of hope it does. I feel like it ends up being a pretty good race when you have that and you’re taking the risk. It seems like the risk is always higher at short tracks to come and stop and be one of the first guys to put on tires because you’re exposed for so long, right? And I think that’s why you see people avoid that for a longer period of time because you’re going to go two laps, maybe more, down if you’re doing a four tire green flag stop. And if a caution flies during that period of time, you’re up the creek pretty bad, right? A wave around doesn’t fix that, where at a lot of mile-and-a-halves, a wave around would fix your problem because you’re only one lap down versus being more than one.
That’s why I think the risk reward becomes a little bit more of a question, but I think it also makes it entertaining. You’ll have guys that are aggressive on that and rightfully so.”
Are you pleased that the Indy race is back on the oval as opposed to the road course? And secondly, what would it mean to you to be the first father son, if you won the Brickyard, to have that accolade?
“First off, I’m glad it’s back on the big track. I certainly understood the reason for the change, and I respect the effort to try and do something different. It just kind of felt, from my seat at least, that the Brickyard is a really big deal and it always has been in our sport ever since I was a kid. I just felt like that race belongs on the big track. I just think it feels better. Whether the race is good or not, suck it up and we’ll just run it on the big track. And if it’s a good show, it’s a good show. And if it’s not, it’s not. And at the end of the day, I think that race winner should come from the big track itself.
I totally support that decision, regardless of what the race looks like. That was one of the very few races that I was old enough to even have a few memories from or even just be in the pictures of dad’s wins, which was really, really neat. Even then, I knew how big of a deal that was. It was evident in the way he acted and in the way that race was portrayed. Even as a child, you could telling the meaning behind it. So I think for that reason, it always has carried a little more weight than some of the others. I would love to check that box for a lot of reasons, with that one being the number one. But I have never won a big crown jewel race. I’ve been close on a handful of occasions, but never gotten across that bridge, so it would be as good of a place, if not the best, to make that happen.”
You were on Bussin with the Boys, and while you were there, you stumped for more Saturday night races as opposed to Sunday night races, which we’ve kind of come to have here. You mentioned in particular how it puts fans in a pretty tough spot. Could you just expand on that? Have you heard things from fans like that directly, or I guess, what are your overall thoughts on Saturday night versus Sunday night?
“Yeah, honestly, those comments came directly from people that I know personally that either went to the race and weren’t super thrilled about their Monday morning and probably won’t do it again, or people that chose not to go because they had to go to work on Monday morning. So it stemmed directly from fans of our sport; people that aren’t just watching on TV, people that are spending their money to come support us at the track in-person and in the stands. That was why I said that, just because I have heard it directly.
And while I totally get that TV runs the show in a lot of ways, there are still a lot of people that like coming to the races and also probably would like a day at home to recover and kind of get their affairs in order to go back to work on Monday. So I think there’s room for middle ground in that. I think Saturday night races have always been a really big deal. Growing up, for me, I always thought they were the most fun, like as a kid, as a fan, coming to the races. I mean, heck, even if I wasn’t there, I was watching it on TV and I was at home. I was fired up to have a Saturday night race. I thought it was great. The only downside was I didn’t have anything to watch on Sunday, but that was part of it, right? Like you were bummed about that when Sunday afternoon rolled around and the race wasn’t on, but the lead in, the excitement and energy for a Saturday night show, I thought, was pretty darn elite.
You know, right now, you’re up against regional baseball and I think it would be a great time for us to take advantage of Saturday night races, especially in the summer. It’s hot, so we need to be under the lights. There’s no need to be racing during the day?
Do you think that hurts Atlanta, in particular, given the things that you mentioned, like the Braves, and the fact that we’re in a market where people have to go to work the next morning, or is it more general?
“I think it’s just in general. I mean, I think people travel from a lot of different areas for our races, and the further they travel, the harder that is to do. No one has told me what the exact reason is for that, so I’m reaching a little bit there. I’m assuming it’s for TV. But yeah, I just think it makes a lot of sense. I think there’s room for it in our sport. We don’t have a lot of Saturday night races, in general, so if you had a couple extra, I’m not sure what that’s hurting really at the end of the day.
And again, you’ve had the World Cup on TV, which it’s winding down right now. There are some other sports here and there, but you know, baseball is probably the biggest thing that’s kind of going on right now and the push to their playoffs. But it can be difficult to watch. Like even as a Braves fan, it may be on TV at certain points in time. Maybe if they’re on the west coast, they have some kind of weird TV stuff, so if you’re not living in that particular region, you’re probably not even eligible to watch. So I think we have a unique opportunity with the networks that we’re on to take advantage of the ability to watch this across the country on the good broadcast partners that we have. I think a Saturday night race is super healthy for people at home watching. And also, the people that are here, it’s an opportunity for them to get home on Sunday and reset and go back to work on Monday.”
You haven’t ran a truck since 2023, but you’ve always done pretty well in that series. When the opportunity from Spire Motorsports came, were you excited? Hesitant? What was the initial reaction?
“Yeah, excited. I mean, it’s one of those opportunities where I wish I wasn’t considering the circumstances. But when Jeff (Dickerson) reached out to me, I don’t know, a few weeks ago about it, he just said, hey, would you have any interest in doing this? Kyle (Busch) was intended to run this race. And I said, yeah, I’d be honored to run it and I would love to do it. If I can help, let me know. And he said, okay, we’ll do it… done. So that was really about it. It was a short exchange. I don’t get asked a lot to do that stuff, so I appreciated him thinking of me and being willing to let me come drive their stuff.”
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