9 CHASE ELLIOTT
Age: 26 (Nov. 28, 1995)
Hometown: Dawsonville, Georgia
Resides: Dawsonville, Georgia
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson
Standings: 1st
No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in the NASCAR Cup Series, will be available in the New Hampshire Motor Speedway media center at 10:45 a.m. local time on Saturday, July 16.
LEADER OF THE PACK: Following his win at his home track of Atlanta Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott expanded his NASCAR Cup Series point standings lead to 47 markers over Ryan Blaney. Sweeping the first two stages en route to the win, the Dawsonville, Georgia, native now has 20 coveted playoff points, the most among the Cup Series field. The 2020 Cup Series champion is also the only driver with three wins this season.
SIMILAR TRACK PERFORMANCE: This Sunday, Elliott will make his ninth Cup Series start at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. In 47 starts on tracks measuring 1-mile to 1.366-miles in length (Dover Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway, Phoenix Raceway and WWT Raceway) , the 26-year-old driver has four wins, including two victories this season at Dover and Nashville. Accompanying those victories are 19 top-five finishes, 25 top-10s and 1,232 laps led.
KEEP THE STREAK ALIVE: Elliott is riding a streak of three consecutive top-two finishes. In his three most recent starts, he’s amassed two victories (Nashville and Atlanta) and a runner-up finish at Road America. He currently also has four consecutive top-10 finishes, his second longest top-10 streak of the season.
FRONT RUNNER: The three-time 2022 winner has spent a lot of time at the front of the field this season. His average finish of 10.84 is best among his fellow Cup Series competitors and he’s led a series-high 645 laps in 2022, which is also a career-best for the 26-year-old through 19 events. The driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 has raced inside the top-five for 1,900 circuits and the top-10 for 3,060 laps – third-best in each category behind Blaney and Ross Chastain.
GUSTAFSON AT NEW HAMPSHIRE: No. 9 team crew chief Alan Gustafson will call his 30th New Hampshire Cup Series race from atop the pit box on Sunday afternoon. He’s collected two wins with two different drivers on the 1.058-mile track, the first with Kyle Busch in 2006 and the second with Mark Martin in 2009. Along with Gustafson’s two wins, he has seven top-five finishes, 13 top-10s and 550 laps led.
PIT ROAD PROWESS: The No. 9 pit crew continues to impress, currently second-fastest among the Cup Series field this season when it comes to the average length of four tire pit stops with a time of 11.805 seconds. The NAPA AUTO PARTS pit crew is comprised of jackman T.J. Semke, fueler John Gianninoto, tire carrier Jared Erspamer and tire changers Chad Avrit and Nick O’Dell.
HOMETOWN HERO: Elliott’s victory in the Peach State was his first at his home track, which is also the home base for primary partner NAPA AUTO PARTS. With the win, Elliott became just the second Georgia-born driver to win a Cup Series race at Atlanta. His father, NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, won five times at the track. The two also became the third father-son duo to win at the track, joining Dale Earnhardt, Sr. and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. as well as Ned and Dale Jarrett.
A SHOC ENERGY DAYTONA RACE EXPERIENCE: A SHOC Energy is giving fans the opportunity to win a VIP trip to the Cup Series race at Daytona on Saturday, August 27. One grand prize winner and guest will get flight and hotel accommodations, tickets to the regular-season finale and a $500 Visa gift card. The sweepstakes is open now through July 15 and fans can enter by texting “ASHOCTRIP” to 97579.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Team owner Rick Hendrick turned 73 on Tuesday just two days after Chase Elliott won the 287th NASCAR Cup Series race for Hendrick Motorsports. Elliott is one of twenty Cup Series drivers who have tasted victory working with the NASCAR Hall of Famer.
TOP OF THE BOARD: Hendrick Motorsports’ seven wins are the most among all Cup Series teams in 2022. It is the only four-car team to see each of its drivers win a race this season, and all four drivers currently rank in the top 10 in points. The organization’s 1,547 laps out front represent 31 percent of the laps run this season and leads all teams in the series by 419 circuits. Teammates Elliott and William Byron rank 1-2 in laps led.
GOING STREAKING: With two wins and a runner-up finish in his last three races, Elliott is on a three-race run of top-two finishes. Of the last seven times this has happened in the Cup Series, five times have involved a Hendrick Motorsports driver. In addition to his current streak, Elliott has had three-race top-two streaks in 2021 (from Circuit of The Americas to Sonoma Raceway) and 2020 into ’21 (from Martinsville Speedway to Daytona International Speedway). Reigning Cup Series champion Kyle Larson had a three-race streak in 2021 (from the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL to Kansas Speedway – he won all three races) and a six-race streak earlier that season (from Darlington Raceway to Nashville Superspeedway).
SMALL SUCCESS: On “smaller tracks,” which are venues that measure 1.366 miles or shorter, Hendrick Motorsports has won three of the eight races this season. Byron won at Martinsville in April, while Elliott won at Dover Motor Speedway in May and Nashville in June. The organization’s three wins on smaller tracks are the most in the Cup Series this season. Elliott is one of two drivers with multiple wins on tracks no bigger than 1.366 miles in length in 2022 – Joey Logano is the other.
FINE NINE: In its history, Hendrick Motorsports has nine wins at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with five drivers visiting victory lane in The Granite State. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson each won three times at the 1.058-mile facility. Kyle Busch, Mark Martin and Kasey Kahne have one victory apiece.
BACK IN TIME: Kahne earned the last win for the storied organization at the Loudon, New Hampshire, track in July 2012. That is the company’s second-longest drought at an active track as the team has not won at Darlington since May 2012. Since the organization’s last New Hampshire victory, they have won 83 times on 25 different tracks and racked up four championships. At the time of that win, the four current drivers for Hendrick Motorsports had made just one national series start between them (Larson at Kentucky Speedway in June 2012).
Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on what the team can still improve upon before the playoffs: “We want to be better at every aspect of our game. When I look at the weeks ahead, I think the next two are important places that we need to improve at. Loudon has not been a very good place for me. We’ve had a couple decent runs but nothing earth-shattering. Pocono (Raceway) is kind of the same way. I don’t feel like I’ve run good up there since my rookie year, so maybe I just need to forget everything I’ve learned between then and now and restart. We want to be good at all the tracks and I think we’re a strong enough team where we can do that.”
Alan Gustafson, crew chief of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on if they are currently the team to beat as the sport gets closer to the playoffs: “It’s hard to say. I have a huge amount of respect for our competition and what they can accomplish. I don’t think we’ll be the favorites going into Loudon. It’s a track we’ve certainly struggled at. We’ve got some work to do and we’ve been working hard to get it better. It’s the same old story for us, it’s not going to change. We’re going to try do the best we can to get the No. 9 NAPA team operating at our highest potential and if we do that, we’re going to be in great shape and have opportunities to win a lot of races and compete for the championship. Sometimes you get the results and sometimes you don’t, and you’ve just got to continuously work on getting better. We are improving and getting better and have been making strides. It’s good right now, but there’s still a long way to go and we know that. We’ve got to continue to push as hard as we can and can’t allow recent success to take the edge off. If we do that and get to the final 10 in the best possible condition this team can be in, we’ll be in great shape.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
