Chase Elliott keeps winning, but he’s not finished capturing checkered flags this season by any stretch

By Jul 22, 2014, 1:38 AM EDT
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With the third win of his rookie Nationwide Series career, Chase Elliott continued to make it look easy in this past Saturday night’s EnjoyIllinois.com 300 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Elliott dominated the event, leading 85 of the 200 laps on the 1.5-mile oval located about 50 miles southwest of downtown Chicago.

“It was just a phenomenal effort by our whole team,” Elliott told MotorSportsTalk after the race. “The biggest thing I look back on is how fast our pit stops were. Those guys made the difference.”

Not only was it his third win of the season, putting him ahead of all other NNS drivers (he’s tied with Kyle Busch for wins, but Busch’s wins are not eligible to determine the Nationwide championship, as Elliott’s are), he also moved back atop the point standings.

The 18-year-old Elliott now leads former points leader Regan Smith by seven points and Elliott Sadler by eight points.

But displaying the same demeanor he’s shown all season, even with the most wins and the points lead right now, the son of 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Bill Elliott is staying calm, cool and collected.

In fact, as good as he’s been thus far, you might not know the kind of success Elliott’s had by the way he spoke after Saturday’s win – and in his first racing visit to Chicagoland, as well.

“I’m thinking we’ve got to get better and have to be able to improve from where we are tonight to be able to contend for more wins, because that’s what your competition is doing,” Elliott said. “We’ve got to keep that in mind and not ever get happy with where you are because that’s just the way the sport and the way everything evolves.

“The second you get happy with the position you’re in is when you’re going to go backwards. We just have to make sure we keep trying to persevere and get better week in and week out.

“We just have to improve all around and hopefully, if we can do that, we can try to get back to victory lane soon.”

In the same vein, looking at things more with a glass half-empty than half-full perspective extends to Elliott when it comes to him discussing being back on top of the NNS standings.

“Like I’ve said all year long. I don’t get caught up in the points,” Elliott said. “I don’t think I’ve looked at the points battle all season long on the Internet. Really, to me, it is what it is. If we go out and do our job on the weekend, the points are going to figure themselves out.

“If we all show up and do our jobs to the best of our ability week in and week out, the points will figure themselves out. And that’s all you can ask for. You can go out and try do your best, and from there a lot of it is out of your control. So we’ve just got to try and do that.”

Elliott is looking to make it four wins on the season and the second in a row in a first-time visit behind the wheel in this Saturday’s NNS race at historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“I’m real excited about getting to Indy,” Elliott said. “That’s a place that means a lot to me personally, having my dad win the Brickyard in 2002. That’s just a special place for me ever since. It’s just such a tough race track, and the history that’s there when you walk through the tunnel, I don’t know if you can describe it.

“To walk through Gasoline Alley there next week, that’s going to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we’re going to try and make the most of it.”

Like maybe earning another win, perhaps? He’s certainly going to try, that’s for sure.

Follow me @JerryBonkowski

 

With throaty roar, NASCAR Next Gen Camaro is taking Le Mans by storm on global stage

Associated PressJun 8, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT
Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
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LE MANS, France — The V8 engine of the NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro has a distinct growl that cannot go unnoticed even among the most elite sports cars in the world at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

When the Hendrick Motorsports crew fired up the car inside Garage 56, NASCAR chairman Jim France broke into a huge grin and gave a thumbs up.

“The only guy who didn’t cover his ears,” laughed seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.

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France has been waiting since 1962 – the year his father, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., brought him to his first 24 Hours of Le Mans – to hear the roar of a stock car at the most prestigious endurance race in the world.

A path finally opened when NASCAR developed its Next Gen car, which debuted last year. France worked out a deal to enter a car in a specialized “Innovative Car” class designed to showcase technology and development. The effort would be part of NASCAR’s 75th celebration and it comes as Le Mans marks its 100th.

Once he had the approval, France persuaded Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear – NASCAR’s winningest team, manufacturer and tire supplier – to build a car capable of running the twice-around-the-clock race.

The race doesn’t start until Saturday, but NASCAR’s arrival has already been wildly embraced and France could not be more thrilled.

“Dad’s vision, to be able to follow it, it took awhile to follow it up, and my goal was to outdo what he accomplished,” France told The Associated Press. “I just hope we don’t fall on our ass.”

The car is in a class of its own and not racing anyone else in the 62-car field. But the lineup of 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button and Johnson has been fast enough; Rockenfeller put down a qualifying lap that was faster than every car in the GTE AM class by a full three seconds.

The Hendrick Motorsports crew won its class in the pit stop competition and finished fifth overall as the only team using a manual jack against teams exclusively using air jacks. Rick Hendrick said he could not be prouder of the showing his organization has made even before race day.

“When we said we’re gonna do it, I said, ‘Look, we can’t do this half-assed. I want to be as sharp as anybody out there,” Hendrick told AP. “I don’t want to be any less than any other team here. And just to see the reaction from the crowd, people are so excited about this car. My granddaughter has been sending me all these TikTok things that fans are making about NASCAR being at Le Mans.”

This isn’t NASCAR’s first attempt to run Le Mans. The late France Sr. brokered a deal in 1976, as America celebrated its bicentennial, to bring two cars to compete in the Grand International class and NASCAR selected the teams. Herschel McGriff and his son, Doug, drove a Wedge-powered, Olympia Beer-sponsored Dodge Charger, and Junie Donlavey piloted a Ford Torino shared by Richard Brooks and Dick Hutcherson.

Neither car came close to finishing the race. McGriff, now 95 and inducted into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in January, is in Le Mans as France’s guest, clad head-to-toe in the noticeable Garage 56 uniforms.

“I threw a lot of hints that I would like to come. And I’ve been treated as royalty,” McGriff said. “This is unbelievable to me. I recognize nothing but I’m anxious to see everything. I’ve been watching and seeing pictures and I can certainly see the fans love their NASCAR.”

The goal is to finish the full race Sunday and, just maybe, beat cars from other classes. Should they pull off the feat, the driver trio wants its own podium celebration.

“I think people will talk about this car for a long, long time,” said Rockenfeller, who along with sports car driver Jordan Taylor did much of the development alongside crew chief Chad Knaus and Greg Ives, a former crew chief who stepped into a projects role at Hendrick this year.

“When we started with the Cup car, we felt already there was so much potential,” Rockenfeller said. “And then we tweaked it. And we go faster, and faster, at Le Mans on the SIM. But you never know until you hit the real track, and to be actually faster than the SIM. Everybody in the paddock, all the drivers, they come up and they are, ‘Wow, this is so cool,’ and they were impressed by the pit stops. We’ve overachieved, almost, and now of course the goal is to run for 24 hours.”

The car completed a full 24-hour test at Sebring, Florida, earlier this year, Knaus said, and is capable of finishing the race. Button believes NASCAR will leave a lasting impression no matter what happens.

“If you haven’t seen this car live yet, it’s an absolute beast,” Button said. “When you see and hear it go by, it just puts a massive smile on your face.”

For Hendrick, the effort is the first in his newfound embrace of racing outside NASCAR, the stock car series founded long ago in the American South. Aside from the Le Mans project, he will own the Indy car that Kyle Larson drives for Arrow McLaren in next year’s Indianapolis 500 and it will be sponsored by his automotive company.

“If you’d have told me I’d be racing at Le Mans and Indianapolis within the same year, I’d never have believed you,” Hendrick told AP. “But we’re doing both and we’re going to do it right.”

Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Fans gather around the NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that is the Garage 56 entry for the 100th 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).

General Motors is celebrating the achievement with a 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Garage 56 Edition and only 56 will be available to collectors later this year.

“Even though Chevrolet has been racing since its inception in 1911, we’ve never done anything quite like Garage 56,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “A NASCAR stock car running at Le Mans is something fans doubted they would see again.”

The race hasn’t even started yet, but Hendrick has enjoyed it so much that he doesn’t want the project to end.

“It’s like a shame to go through all this and do all this, and then Sunday it’s done,” Hendrick said. “It’s just really special to be here.”