HAMPTON, Ga. — The hardest person to please for Chase Elliott is Chase Elliott.
A top-10 finish at a tricky track that had veteran drivers and his fellow rookies turning their steering wheels right almost as much as left brought accolades from as high as team owner Rick Hendrick.
Analytical and unassuming, the No. 24 Chevrolet driver’s assessment of his own eighth-place finish in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500: “I need to get better and build on that.”
Truly, though. Elliott was pleased with his first Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the home track to the Dawsonville, Georgia, native.
“It’s definitely special to be here at Atlanta and have a strong run. I’m very happy about that, and definitely a very special feeling to walk out before the race and to see the support in the stands of a lot of people,” Elliott said. “This is close to home for me and a lot of people around here supporting our race team, so that was really cool.”
Elliott pointed to a 24th-place qualifying effort Friday as an area where he can improve, but he was happy to simply finish the 2016 season’s second race after a disappointing wreck relegated him to a 37th-place finish in last week’s Daytona 500.
“Pit stops were solid, and it wasn’t a perfect day, but it was a day we can build on and try to get better,” Elliott continued.
Praise was more effusive from elsewhere.
“I was real proud of him today,” fellow Hendrick Motorsports driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. said of Elliott. “I was not surprised by his run, and he’s going to just get better. They’ve got a great team. Alan (Gustafson) is an amazing crew chief and they’re going to work together really well.”
As for Hendrick himself, a rookie handling a lower downforce package at Atlanta was eye-opening, indeed.
“Chase impressed me today about as much as I’ve ever seen a young driver drive — in a race with a low downforce car that he’s never been able to experience in a race before when he’s having to race Kyle Busch and the guys he was racing, Brad (Keselowski), all day long, never make a mistake” Hendrick said. “He was just as cool on the radio as any seasoned driver, getting great feedback.
“I am really excited about that young man in the future.”