Chase Elliott can do something in the Coke 600 his NASCAR legend father never did
Chase Elliott still looks young. At age 25, he still feels young. But NASCAR’s most popular driver for three straight years and a full-time Cup driver since 2016 has been around for six years now in the sport’s top circuit, which you will know if you look in his trophy case or — if you catch him on the right day — on top of his head.
“Yeah, I’ve got a couple of gray hairs,” Elliott said, laughing, in our recent phone interview. “Apparently, I’m getting old.”
The gray hairs were about as welcome as a four-hour weather delay on a Sunday afternoon race, and so Elliott made sure they were quickly removed. “I wanted no evidence of that,” Elliott said. “They’re gone — at least until the next ones come.”
The son of Bill Elliott, a former “Most Popular Driver” and NASCAR series champion himself, Chase Elliott has long been considered to be one of the sport’s young stars. But the gray hairs are a small piece of evidence that Elliott should be moved into a different category. At some point last year, as he was on his way to five Cup series wins and his first series championship, Chase Elliott stopped being one of the sport’s best young drivers and simply became one of its best drivers, period.
On Sunday night, in his 200th start in the NASCAR Cup series and in front of an estimated crowd of around 50,000 people at Charlotte Motor Speedway — a post-pandemic unofficial record for fans in the state of North Carolina — Chase Elliott will try to accomplish a family first for the Elliott family. He will attempt to win the Coca-Cola 600.
For all Bill Elliott did in the sport, including his 1988 series championship, he never won the Coke 600. And for all Chase Elliott has already done, including three NASCAR Cup wins in races contested at CMS and 12 Cup victories overall, he has yet to win the track’s 600-mile signature race.
“I don’t know (why),” said Elliott, whose last two 600s were impressive near-misses — fourth in 2019, second in 2020. “I don’t really have a good answer for you. Not being good enough, I guess.”
Elliott was winless in the 2021 season until last weekend, which was somewhat surprising given the way he dominated the end of the 2020 season. But then the Hendrick Motorsports driver took his No. 9 Chevy to a rain-shortened victory on the road course in Austin, Texas, so he enters this weekend on a modest hot streak.
Would it mean something for him to bring a Coke 600 trophy back to Dawsonville, Ga., where he grew up and still lives?
“That would be great,” Elliott said. “That’s a huge race, a crown jewel of the sport. When you end your career, that’s one you always want to have in the win column. So I absolutely would love to check that box.”
Elliott doesn’t overthink races, or race tracks. When I asked him about the 1.5-mile oval track at Charlotte Motor Speedway compared to other venues, he said: “It’s asphalt and has two ends on it. As far as I’m concerned, I think they’re all about the same. I’m more performance-driven — how we do, how things are going for us.”
How has it been going? Given Elliott finished last year at No. 1, his standards are pretty high. “I think our season has been OK,” said Elliott, who sits fifth in the points standings and has all but clinched a playoff spot already.
NASCAR is well-known for its generational themes. The Elliotts are the fifth father-son duo to win NASCAR series titles on a national level. The other four are all NASCAR royalty: The Pettys, Earnhardts, Jarretts and Pearsons.
With a career that could stretch another 15-20 years at the Cup level, Elliott could easily surpass all of his father’s records.
But to do that, he has to concentrate on a single mile at a time. Winning the 600, the race his father never won, would be quite a start. On Sunday, I think he’s going to do it.
This story was originally published May 30, 2021 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Chase Elliott can do something in the Coke 600 his NASCAR legend father never did."
