Elliott aims to break into Victory Lane with Cope

Just more than four months later, the 19-year-old is back for the fourth race of the NASCAR XFINITY Series season, the Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200 (Saturday, 4 p.m. ET on FOX), and the JR Motorsports has fond memories of his last time here.

“This hasn’t really been a place where I feel like I’ve done a very good job at. So I feel like to get a top-five (in the Fall race) personally was an improvement and then, definitely the clinched championship made it a great day,” Elliott said.

He is back with a new crew chief in Ernie Cope. After being the eighth-fastest on the speed chart in Friday’s opening XFINITY practice, he placed third in the final practice. He also comes in fifth in the point standings, 24 points behind current points leader Ty Dillon. The fact that his competitors have raised their game is not lost on Elliott as well.

“People we are racing against have gotten a lot better over the past year for sure and we know that,” Elliott said. “We are definitely up to the task to try and get better and one-up them so hopefully we can do that this weekend and get out of here with a good finish.”

With Cope atop the pit box, Elliott said there have been some subtle differences in the transition to a new crew chief, an offseason change made necessary when Greg Ives moved up to lead Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team.

“They go about things a little bit differently,” Elliott said. “It’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly what is different about that. I see a lot of similarities too. … Their end goals are still the same. They’re all-in with their driver. They really put a lot of confidence in who’s driving. … And I think that’s a great thing to have, if you’re a driver. You definitely want to have that feeling of your crew chief and your guys have confidence in what you are doing. It makes you go about your job a little better.”

Elliott comes into Phoenix with two straight fifth-place finishes after a 28th-place result at Daytona following his involvement in a late-race crash. Despite finishing fifth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last week, the defending series champion was left unsatisfied and frustrated.

“The result didn’t really reflect how we ran,” Elliott said. “We really didn’t deserve to finish fifth last week. Got really lucky with the way the caution fell and got our lap back there. We were all just frustrated. We were battling to stay on the lead lap and when you’re battling to stay on the lead lap, that’s not a good day. I try to be honest and be simple about things and we honestly did not have a good day. Why lie about it?”

Last season, Elliott started racking up top-fives and top-10s early, but didn’t break into Victory Lane until the April race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Elliott, who will be piloting the No. 24 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2016 for Hendrick Motorsports, is in a distinctive spot with a promotion secured while also competing to defending his championship in the XFINITY Series.

“I just put emphasis on the fact that next year is a year away,” said Elliott, who will compete in five Sprint Cup events this season. “Just realize that that’s a long ways off. There’s a lot of racing between now and that really has no reason to be overlooked at the end of the day. We’re doing a lot of racing right now. I feel like right now I have a job to go and to give it my all for my guys, and it’s unfair for them for me to look past that. I’m not going to do that to them and they wouldn’t do that to me.”

Elliott will make his Sprint Cup debut in the No. 25 Chevrolet in two weeks at Martinsville Speedway. Though he’s looking forward to his premier series debut, the young driver is still trying to keep things on an even keel.

“I’m obviously very, very excited,” Elliott said. “You’ve got to be careful about how excited you get because a lot of things have to go your way just to get in the race in the first place without any points. … You don’t want to get overly excited for something that may not happen.

“Just got to be careful there, in the sense of making sure that qualifying goes OK, we are able to get in the show and hopefully the weather will hold off at the same time. If we can get in the race, I’m really excited about it. To make your first Cup start is something I’ve always wanted to do. … To be going to Martinsville, to race myself and not go watch my dad; I’ve gone there and watched him race a bunch of times now. It will be a different feel for sure.”

MORE: