Chase Elliott’s transition to the Cup Series begins at Martinsville
A year ago, Chase Elliott was preparing for his first in-season off weekend as a full-time Xfinity Series driver. He’s got the weekend off from the series again this year, but instead of relaxing in Charlotte or spending the weekend somewhere else away from a racetrack, he’s preparing to make his Sprint Cup Series debut.
Sunday’s race at Martinsville is the first of five 2015 Cup Series attempts for the 19-year-old heir to Jeff Gordon’s No. 24.
I don’t really know what to expect until we go and give it a shot,” Elliott told Yahoo Sports. “You hope it goes well and my goal is to try and go and put together a solid weekend, do my job. If we can go and run all the laps … if we can battle to stay on the lead lap and run somewhere around the top 15 I think that would be a great day”
Martinsville can be hell on a rookie. Just ask David Ragan. He made his second career Cup Series start at Martinsville in 2006 and after being involved in three cautions, was tagged “a dart without feathers” by Tony Stewart.
It’s doubtful you’ll hear the phrase used to describe Elliott on Sunday. He’s in a fifth car for Hendrick Motorsports, a team that’s won 22 races at the flat half-mile track. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Elliott’s car owner in the Xfinity Series, Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have all won at Martinsville in Hendrick cars.
“I hope they take it easy on me,” Elliott said with a chuckle.
It’s hard not to wonder just how soon people will be saying the same thing about Elliott after he won the Xfinity Series title in his first full NASCAR season and now has a reserved spot to replace one of the greatest NASCAR drivers in 2016.
“I’ll definitely be asking questions [over the weekend], probably to Jeff more than anyone else just because of the circumstances and the things moving forward – our car being built out of the [Gordon] and the [Kasey Kahne] shop,” Elliott said. “I think it just makes sense to ask questions to those guys more than anyone else.”
With 46 cars, Elliott’s first order of business will be to simply qualify on Friday. While not guaranteed, it shouldn’t be too complicated with a clean lap. And he’s not going into Martinsville blindly. His first Truck Series start came at the track as a 17-year-old in 2013. He qualified eighth and finished sixth.
“I think the main goal is to use these five races to prepare for the Cup races next year. And at the same time, we’re going to go to these places and try and go and be as fast as we possibly can … you don’t want to go and try and run 15th. If you can run better than that, that’d be great.”
– – – – – – –
Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
