After a rough first Cup run at Martinsville, Elliott counts on qualifying
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RICHMOND, Va. — Chase Elliott didn’t even realize how fast he was in Friday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Qualifying at Richmond International Raceway.
After posting the fifth-best lap early into the opening qualifying session, Elliott’s crew radioed to the 19-year-old that his lap may not ultimately stay that high on the scoring pylon, but it should be good enough to advance him into the second round of qualifying.
“That sure would be nice,” Elliott responded.
Elliott’s No. 25 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet ended up with an impressive 16th-place starting position for Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 (1 p.m. ET, FOX) — a promising situation for last year’s XFINITY Series champion in his second Sprint Cup Series race.
“That was surprising, I’m not going to lie,” a cheerful Elliott told reporters.
“That was a great effort for our team, and to be where we were in practice, I didn’t think we had the best qualifying speed. I thought our car was OK in race trim, but I couldn’t figure it out how to go as fast as we needed to.
“I still wasn’t where we needed to be, but very, very happy to qualify 16th and it was an improvement from last time, so we’ll try to go from there tomorrow night.”
It certainly is progress from Elliott’s much-anticipated Cup debut March 29 at Martinsville, Virginia.
Tabbed to replace Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet next season, Elliott is making five starts this season to get a taste of what awaits in the big time.
His first race was a learning experience, to say the least. Elliott’s Chevrolet collided with fellow young prospect Brett Moffitt‘s Toyota only 75 laps into the Martinsville race. Elliott’s part-time crew led by veteran crew chief Kenny Francis, but working together for the first time, had to make extensive repairs and Elliott eventually returned to the track in last place, 69 laps down.
“Once they got the “new” off what they were doing, I think it went fine after that because I think the best thing that happened was getting the car fixed and getting back into the race,” said Elliott’s father, 1988 Sprint Cup champion Bill Elliott.
“That really, to me, calmed everything down. I think there were a lot of nerves going on.
“I think they learned a lot, definitely. The hardest part at any of these short tracks is once you get torn up, you’re trying to stay out of everybody else’s way the rest of the day. … it’s the worst thing to have to do.
“All in all, looking at the whole thing and how things ran, everyone was very pleased and he was very happy.”
And this week, Elliott is very hopeful.
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