NSCS: Chase Elliott Speaks of Gaining Experience and Longer Races

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 24 Napa Auto Parts Chevrolet is a rookie in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and so far this season, he has had some ups and some downs. He won the pole for the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway but during the race he finished 37th. Since then, he has had five top-10 finishes. 

“I think for me, I still look at a lot of areas for improvement,” Elliott said. “We have had our ups and downs for sure. We are still working through things and trying to get better. We are still getting used to each other and things along those lines. The relationship has been good. I think I have a great group of guys around me. They are certainly a great group, they have been great to me at the racetrack when we are working on the car, going throughout practice, or away from the racetrack building some of those friendships have been great as well.

“Definitely, there have been lots of surprises. It’s hard to nail down one. I would say…I’m trying to think of one that really jumped out at me. As you go along throughout each weekend, one thing is these races are so long and so much can happen throughout a race. No matter how you start I think you have so much time to try to work on your car and make it better throughout the day, where as in races in the past you might not necessarily of had that time to work on your car as long. It seems like in these Cup races if you are off a little bit in the beginning, it’s obviously not good, but it’s also not the end of the world. And kind of work through that stuff and kind of keep clawing through it and hope you can find the balance at some point.”  

The extended distance is something that Elliott is getting used to this year, and to help him better prepare for a race, Elliott does a lot of Cardio to help increases his stamina. He also does exercises to prepare himself mentally as well and says the longer the race, the more he exercises.

“I do think it is important,” Elliott said. “As you run these races they are so long. You want to try to give it your all throughout the race, but the most important part as you touched on is the end of the race and trying to be around at the end and give yourself a chance. If you are not both physically and mentally there 100 percent at lap 500 mile or however long the race might be you are not doing anybody any favors and that is not fair to your group.”

He really likes to go Mountain bike riding and thinks since he started doing that to help prepare for a race it has helped him overall in the car.

“IAnytime you can feel better, no matter what you are doing, I think that is an improvement,” he said. “If you can go somewhere and feel better when you get there, mentally, physically, across the board I think that is a good thing. The conditioning in the racecar, I think just running these races is conditioning in itself. The more you do it certainly I think the more your body will get used to what it takes to run these races and how you feel when you get towards the end.”

The NASCAR schedule has some tough tracks coming up that are both mental and physical like Bristol Motor Speedway, Richmond International Raceway, Talladega Superspeedway and the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motorspeedway. Elliott has an advantage at Charlotte as he ran that race last year.

“Yeah, Charlotte was definitely a long race,” Elliott said. “I had thought about it so much as to just how long that race was before I kind of talked myself into thinking it wasn’t as bad as I was thinking it was going to be when we got going. That race to me I don’t know if it was just I was expecting it to be so long that it didn’t feel like a 600-miler or it kind of felt like a normal 500 mile race. This year I would say the longest race that to me felt longer than the Coke 600 last year was probably Fontana. That seemed like a long race that day for whatever reason. I guess it’s just perspective and how you look at your race day and how things are going too. That makes a big difference.”

During a long race like the 600 at Charlotte, it helps when a driver is comfortable with their spotter and crew chief. The spotter is important as they help the drivers pass during the race. So far, Elliott is feeling very comfortable with Eddie D’Hondt. 

“I think our relationship is definitely grown,” Elliott said. “We’ve both been making tweaks throughout the year. We certainly had a lot of conversation at Daytona. That is such an interesting place to start from a driver and spotter’s relationship from that perspective is interesting because so much conversation is going back and forth between him and I. The way the lanes move back and forth that becomes such a trusting situation. So, for me I think my trust level has grown a lot since then. We’ve made small adjustments here and there of things I like and don’t like. I feel like we’ve got to a pretty good spot where we are both comfortable with each other and the information that is going back and forth. I feel good about it now and I don’t really have any issues.”