9 CHASE ELLIOTT
Age: 25 (Nov. 28, 1995)
Hometown: Dawsonville, Georgia
Resides: Dawsonville, Georgia
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson
Standings: 4th
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No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE
COURSE KING: Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, is set to make his 15th Cup Series start on a road course this weekend at Sonoma Raceway. Most recently, he collected a victory in the inaugural race at Circuit of The Americas. He has collected the most wins (six) in the fewest starts (14) and stage wins (six) of active drivers. Overall, 25-year-old Elliott is the youngest driver to have six road course wins. He has garnered seven top-five finishes, nine top-10s and a total of 289 laps led at road courses. His six wins tie him with NASCAR legends Rusty Wallace, Ricky Rudd, Richard Petty and Bobby Allison for third-most all-time road course wins behind Jeff Gordon (nine) and Tony Stewart (eight). He also remains the youngest road course winner at 22 years, 8 months, 8 days.
ROAD COURSE PROWESS: Elliott’s wins at COTA (2021), Watkins Glen (2018, 2019), Charlotte ROVAL (2019, 2020) and the DAYTONA Road Course (2020) account for six of the last nine road course victories. The Dawsonville, Georgia, native has led laps in the last seven road course races, the longest active streak. In 2021 on road courses, Elliott has led the most laps of all drivers (49) and also holds the best average finish (9.21) of active drivers and sixth-best all-time average of drivers with at least five starts.
WHAT A STREAK: Sunday’s second-place result is Elliott’s third consecutive top-three finish of the season. Also, having collected a top-10 finish in each of the last five NASCAR Cup Series events, Elliott currently holds the longest active streak.
RETURN TO WINE COUNTRY: Elliott is set to make his fifth Cup Series start at Sonoma Raceway this weekend. In his previous Cup starts at the road course, the driver of the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 earned his first top-10 result at Sonoma in 2017 and followed it up in the 2018 season with a fourth-place finish – his first career top-five on a road course. During the last visit to the 2.52-mile course, Elliott raced inside the top five for most of the event before a mechanical issue ended the No. 9 team’s day in the final stage.
GUSTAFSON ON ROAD COURSES: Crew chief Alan Gustafson will call his 37th road course race from atop the pit box this Sunday at Sonoma. In his previous 36 starts, the Florida native has garnered six wins, the most of active crew chiefs, 11 top-five finishes, 17 top-10s and 346 laps led.
SEASON SUMMARY: Sunday marked the 15th race of the 2021 Cup Series season. So far this year, Elliott has one win, seven top-five finishes (three of which are runner-up results), nine top-10s, and has led a total of 103 laps. He has also collected the fifth-most stage points (114), one stage win, has spent 1,368 laps inside the top five and 2,605 laps running in the top 10. Elliott’s average running position for the season is 10.04 and his average finish is 10.6. He currently sits fourth in the driver point standings, 92 points behind leader Denny Hamlin.
PIT ROAD POWER: Heading to Sonoma, the No. 9 team owns the sixth-best average time for four-tire pit stops at 13.76 seconds through 15 races. The NAPA pit crew is comprised of jackman T.J. Semke, gasman John Gianninoto, tire carrier Jared Erspamer and tire changers Chad Avrit and Nick O’Dell.
NAPA KNOW HOW: The No. 9 Chevrolet will don the familiar blue, white and yellow NAPA AUTO PARTS paint scheme on Sunday at Sonoma. The Atlanta-based company is serving as majority sponsor for Elliott and the No. 9 team for 25 NASCAR Cup Series races this season.
IT’S 269 … AND COUNTING: Kyle Larson’s dominant win Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway was the record-breaking 269th in the NASCAR Cup Series for Hendrick Motorsports and NASCAR Hall of Fame car owner Rick Hendrick. The team is now the winningest in the history of NASCAR’s top-tier series after passing the legendary Petty Enterprises, which recorded 268 across six decades. The Petty organization held the Cup Series record for points-paying victories for more than 60 years before Hendrick Motorsports tied the mark May 23 at Circuit of The Americas and broke it at Charlotte.
FOR A CAUSE: After Chase Elliott won at COTA to tie the Petty Enterprises record, the autographed door panel of his No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE went up for auction to benefit Victory Junction. When the auction closed Sunday at 7 p.m. ET, the winning bid stood at $28,700. Car owner Hendrick matched it with a separate donation, bringing the total impact to $57,400.
ONE-TWO-THREE: Hendrick Motorsports has won three consecutive NASCAR Cup Series races, finishing at least first and second in all of them. The team recorded an incredible 1-2-3-4 result at Dover International Speedway, finished first and second at COTA, and then 1-2-4-5 at Charlotte. In the last three events, the team has three wins, 10 top-five finishes and 11 top-10s. Its worst finish during the stretch was 11th place. Hendrick Motorsports has won at least three straight races on 16 different occasions, the most of all teams in NASCAR history.
THREE WINS, THREE DRIVERS: The three consecutive wins by Hendrick Motorsports have come via three different drivers: Alex Bowman at Dover, Elliott at COTA and Larson at Charlotte. The last time Hendrick Motorsports won three straight with different drivers was 2015 with Jeff Gordon at Martinsville, Jimmie Johnson at Texas and Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Phoenix. No team has ever won four consecutive races with four different drivers.
WIN COUNTRY: Going into Sunday’s road-course event at Sonoma Raceway, Hendrick Motorsports is the track’s all-time leader in wins (six), pole positions (nine), runner-up finishes (six), top-five results (31), top-10s (54) and laps led (674).
ROAD RUNNERS: Hendrick Motorsports is the all-time leader in NASCAR Cup Series road-course wins with 21, which is eight more than any other team. It has won road races with six different drivers and has more stage wins on road courses (eight) than anyone else.
GREAT AS OF LATE: On road courses over the last three NASCAR Cup Series seasons (2019-2021), Hendrick Motorsports has won six of nine races, including five of the last six. The team has won two of four pole positions, six of 14 stages and led 308 of 587 laps raced (52%).
Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, on returning to Sonoma: “Sonoma has been a place that I haven’t done a very good job at in the past. It’s been a pretty big challenge for me. It’s been a couple years since we’ve been there, so it’s been a while. When we were there in 2019, I felt like we were doing a great job and in a good position before we had our mechanical issue, so I’m looking forward to getting back and having another shot at it.”
Alan Gustafson, crew chief of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, on racing at Sonoma: “Sonoma is so unique and hard to master until you have run there for a while. I feel like we were really close in 2019, probably the best we have been at Sonoma. It is such a tough track to get around and the drivers struggle to see around the apex. The surface is also pretty worn out around the track. The closest track surface we probably see is the DAYTONA Road Course. I do think we were really close the to win in ’19, though. Hopefully, we will rectify that finish this weekend.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
