BROOKLYN, Mich. – He’s officially a Cup Series winner, but Chase Elliott is rebuffing attempts to be crowned as greatness yet.
Particularly as it relates to an Elvis Presley comparison that Dale Earnhardt Jr. made about his former Hendrick Motorsports teammate during his Dale Jr. Download podcast.
“I think he needs to retire from giving nicknames,” Elliott said with a laugh about being bestowed with the “Young Elvis” moniker by Earnhardt. “For some reason, he has always thought I looked like Elvis, and I really don’t know why. I know he has a little bit of an obsession with Elvis. He has an Elvis room in his house, which is kind of weird. I’ve been in that room before and you wake up and there is this Elvis man staring at you.”
While “The King” has left the building, Elliott’s reign in NASCAR’s premier series could be just beginning, especially considering he is locked into the playoffs earlier than he ever has been.
“I certainly can probably use a little more offense than what you would have if you weren’t locked in,” the No. 9 Chevrolet driver said. “I’ve been on the other end of the stick these past two years, and it’s such a nice feeling to come into these last few races and know that you’re locked into the deal.
“But I think more than that, playoff points are really important to get. And I think that’s our goal is to try to get as many of those as we can, whether it be winning stages or trying to put yourself in position to win. Obviously, you’re always trying to win. But those stage victories are big, and you can rack up those playoff points quickly. I know it’s only one per stage, but they add up. I think that’s our goal for these next few weeks to just try to get some more playoff points and kind of get to that next tier of guys in points with people you’re going to be racing against in the final 10.”
Elliott is on a streak of three consecutive races with stage wins (the only three stage victories for Hendrick this season), and his victory at Watkins Glen International showed how much he has improved on restarts.
Sunday could be another strong indicator. Elliott has finished second three times at Michigan International Speedway, and both times in 2016 he lost the lead on a late restart.
“I would like to think I could change the result for sure,” Elliott said about his improvement on restarts. “But until you are in those positions it’s hard to know. Some of it is circumstance, too. You could get a good restart and maybe not get a good push, and the guy next to you does get a good push and lose the lead that way. But I would like to think I would do a little better at it, but until you are in those spots you don’t really know.”
Elliott is on a streak of five consecutive top 10s at the 2-mile oval (his worst being a ninth in June) and will try to become the sixth Cup driver to win in his 100th start (the last being Carl Edwards at Michigan on June 17, 2007.
Beyond his history at the track, Elliott’s NASCAR history also suggests Sunday’s race at the 2-mile oval could be a good one.
After scoring his first Xfinity Series career victory April 4, 2014 at Texas Motor Speedway, Elliott won the following week at Darlington Raceway.
“Yeah, I hope so,” Elliott said when asked about history repeating in Cup. “This has been a pretty good track for us in general. That’s not to say this weekend will go good. I feel like we were better here my first two years than we were in the spring race this year, unfortunately.
“So, yeah, I don’t know. I hope this weekend goes good and I think this weekend will be kind of a gauge of where we stack-up for some of these race tracks that are coming up at Indy and Vegas and some of the 1.5-mile and 2-milers coming up. We didn’t stack up very well here in the spring race. I think we’ve gotten a little better at these style tracks since then, so hopefully. We’ll see.”
