Chase Elliott never felt pressure from parents to be a driver
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida — One can imagine how there could be some family pressure to follow in your dad’s footsteps when your father is a Sprint Cup-winning driver who was also voted the most popular driver in NASCAR 16 times.
But according to Daytona 500 polesitter Chase Elliott, he wasn’t pushed into becoming a driver like his father Bill Elliott.
“I’ve always had a lot of respect from both my parents from that aspect,” Elliott said Tuesday. “Everybody talks about my dad, but [Cindy] my mom’s been there all along, as well. If you’re going to talk about him, you have to talk about her, too. I think that is fair because she’s always been there and has worked so hard ever since I started racing to assist in any way that she can.
“Neither one of them have ever forced me to race. It was never that way. It was always my decision. They always let me make that call. They were always just very respectful. They weren’t that soccer mom and dad out there that sometimes can be tough when you have somebody pushing you to do something. It was just never that way. If I ever went home and told my dad I didn’t want to race, there wouldn’t be any hard feelings, we would just do something else and have fun with it. It was never like that.”
There was a sport Cindy did suggest Chase try, however.
“Mom wanted me to go play golf,” Elliott said. “She said golf would be a good choice.”
The result?
“Terrible at golf.”
Elliott has been far from terrible in his still-infancy stage driving career. Two years removed after winning the Xfinity Series title in his first full season at NASCAR’s second level, he’s driving the No. 24 car. Or, if you would prefer, Jeff Gordon’s car.
If there wasn’t pressure from family about being a driver, there’s pressure in being a worthy successor to the four-time champion in the No. 24, right?
“I mean, obviously I want to do the best job I can behind the wheel,” Elliott said. “The only pressure that’s relevant is that that I put upon myself. That’s the only thing that matters.”
The pressure is realistic, according to 2015 Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano. While Elliott may not be expecting immediate success, it wouldn’t be a crazy surprise if he won on Sunday. He clearly has a fast car.
“I went to lunch with him the other day and he was asking me questions about what was different from when I sucked to now,” Logano said with a chuckle. “I was impressed that he asked those questions. He is already ahead of me because I thought I was awesome when I walked in here and I got beat up. He is fully preparing for it being a tough season for him. He is going to have to go through some learning curves. I think he will go through them a lot quicker than I did and I wouldn’t be surprised if he went out and won this year. I think he is doing it all the right way the first time.”
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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!
