JOLIET, Ill. – Chase Elliott knows his life will change dramatically in a little over two months.
On Nov. 21 Elliott will aim to close the book on a two-year run in the Xfinity Series with what he hopes is a second consecutive championship for himself and the No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet.
Two days later, with the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship decided the night before, Elliott will awake a brand new man.
Five days before his 20th birthday, he’ll begin the start of a brand new career as he officially takes over for four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy.
You could excuse Elliott for youthful exuberance if he was thinking a lot about the upcoming transition.
But on Friday at Chicagoland Speedway, his ascension to Sprint Cup was one of the last things on Elliott’s mind.
“I really haven’t yet,” Elliott replied when asked by NBCSports.com if he’s thinking about his future promotion to Sprint Cup. “I’m sure as it gets closer to the end of the year, I will.”
When pressed further, he admitted he has thought about how it will be for him in Gordon’s car at the 2016 season-opening Daytona 500.
“The one thing I have thought is it’s just weird that when we left Daytona (in July), we’re going to go back in February (in a different car and series),” Elliott said. “That’s certainly something I’ve thought about then but nothing more beyond that.”
For now, the only thing Elliott is focused upon is winning this season’s Xfinity title.
Elliott comes into Saturday’s Furious 7 300 ranked second in the standings, 21 points behind series leader Chris Buescher and six points ahead of third-ranked Ty Dillon.
“I try not to look forward to it too much and just try to focus on what we’ve going on currently and just try to do the best job I can there,” Elliott said. “It’s just not fair to all the people that work so hard to make our program go around … to look past this season yet.
“We’re very into what we have going now, and I don’t want to look past that.”
Sign up to play the $16 Million Perfect Grid Challenge
Follow @JerryBonkowski