9 CHASE ELLIOTT
Age: 27 (Nov. 28, 1995)
Hometown: Dawsonville, Georgia
Resides: Dawsonville, Georgia
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson
Standings: 29th
No. 9 LLumar Throwback Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
LOOKING BACK: Last weekend in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, Chase Elliott started from the 21st position and finished the first two stages in 13th. Early in the final stage, the Dawsonville, Georgia, native powered his way to the lead before ultimately finishing the race in seventh. It was the third top-10 finish of the season for Elliott, who missed six races due to a fractured tibia. He now has a streak of five consecutive finishes of 12th or better in just six starts in 2023. The five-time National Motorsports Press Association Most Popular Driver Award winner’s result at Kansas marked the ninth top-10 finish in his 15 career Cup Series starts on the 1.5-mile track.
DARLINGTON DATA: Sunday marks Elliott’s 13th start at Darlington Raceway in the Cup Series. In his previous 12 races at the 1.366-mile oval, he has collected three top-five finishes and five top-10s. His best finish of fourth came in the first of the track’s three races in 2020. Last spring, Elliott finished fifth at Darlington after starting at the rear of the field because he moved to a backup car. Outside of the Cup Series, he has made three Darlington starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, earning a win at the track during his rookie season in 2014.
KEEP IT GOING: Since Elliott’s return to the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at Martinsville Speedway in April after recovering from a fractured tibia, he’s gained 53 points on the playoff bubble. He currently sits 29th in the Cup Series point standings, just 81 markers outside of the provisional cutline for a playoff spot. Elliott would need to gain an average of six points per race to make the playoffs as the standings are currently. In the four races since the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s return, he’s earned the sixth-most points in the series (129).
WIN AND IN: While it’s still possible for Elliott, who missed six races this season due to his injury, to make it into the playoffs on points, a win would all but guarantee a spot for the 27-year-old driver. The 2020 Cup Series champion has had a lot of success on the 14 tracks coming up on the schedule before the playoffs kick off in September. Six of his 18 career Cup Series wins have come at tracks left in the regular season.
AG IN SC: On Sunday, Alan Gustafson, No. 9 team crew chief, is set to call his 23rd Darlington race in the Cup Series. In his previous 22 starts at the track with five different drivers (Kyle Busch, Casey Mears, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon and Elliott), Gustafson has accumulated one win (2009 with Martin), five top-five finishes and nine top-10s with 222 laps led.
FITTING THROWBACK: This weekend, Elliott and the No. 9 team, along with primary sponsor LLumar, are running a special throwback look that is a nod to the driver’s father Bill Elliott’s return to the No. 9 with Evernham Motorsports. The bright red scheme flaunts the iconic stylized numeral from the original scheme, which first hit the track in 2001. The elder Elliott scored the final four victories of his legendary NASCAR Hall of Fame career in the red No. 9 paint scheme. See all the angles of the No. 9 LLumar throwback here.
75 GREATEST: The father-son duo have each been named to the coveted list of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers – Bill as one of the original 50 drivers in 1998 and Chase as part of the new 25 names announced leading up to this weekend’s race. NASCAR will recognize the group during pre-race ceremonies on Sunday at Darlington.
CLOSING IN ON 300: Hendrick Motorsports is five points-paying victories away from 300 wins in the NASCAR Cup Series. Twenty drivers have combined to reach the organization’s current total of 295 wins, which is the most in the sport by any one team. With four wins this season, Hendrick Motorsports has posted its 36th multi-win season in the Cup Series. The organization has won at least two races in each of the last 30 seasons.
FAN FEST IS COMING: Hendrick Motorsports will hold its annual fan appreciation event on May 26-27, 2023. Fan Fest will feature driver appearances, food trucks, activities for kids, photo opportunities, engine building demonstrations, pit stop exhibitions and more. Guided tours of the Hendrick Motorsports team shops will also be available. For more information about the festivities, click here.
NEW PARTNER ONBOARD: Hendrick Motorsports welcomed Hexagon to the fold this week as its official metrology hardware and software provider. Running through 2032, the 10-year agreement includes Hexagon’s presenting sponsorship of a 3,000-square-foot advanced Quality Control Lab on Hendrick Motorsports’ Concord, North Carolina, campus. For more information on the partnership, click here.
THE BEST 75: In honor of NASCAR’s 75th anniversary season, Darlington Raceway will recognize the sport’s 75 Greatest Drivers during the throwback weekend. Among those honored are current drivers Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson. To learn more about those being honored with ties to the 14-time championship-winning squad, click here.
ON TOP AT DARLINGTON: The company’s 14 wins at the South Carolina track are the most all-time by a team. NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon’s seven wins account for half of the total. Jimmie Johnson posted three wins at the 1.366-mile track, including the organization’s 200th Cup Series win in 2012. Terry Labonte, Mark Martin, Tim Richmond and Ricky Rudd each tallied one trip to victory lane at the track “Too Tough to Tame.”
SPRING REVIEW: In last year’s spring race at Darlington, Elliott led the team with a fifth-place finish in a backup car. William Byron held the lead with three laps to go (and led 24 laps on the day) but was moved out of the way by the eventual race winner coming to two to go. Larson led 30 laps before a mechanical issue impacted him in stage two.
OUT IN FRONT: Hendrick Motorsports has led the most laps this season with 1,226 circuits out front. The team has led laps in all but one race this season (Atlanta Motor Speedway in March) and has controlled the race for 38% of the laps run. Byron (589) and Larson (553) rank one-two in that statistical category. The team’s total is more than double the total of the team that ranks second (593). The 1,226 circuits in front are the fifth-most ever for the organization through 12 races. Each of the years with higher occurrences: 1996 (1,771 laps led), 1995 (1,629 laps led), 2010 (1,398 laps led) and 2007 (1,384 laps led) were championship seasons for the Concord, North Carolina, based squad.
STAGE SAVANTS: In the 2023 season, Hendrick Motorsports has a series-best nine stage wins. Three of its drivers have tallied a stage victory. Byron leads all drivers with six, while Larson has two and Elliott has one. In the stage racing era, this is tied for the second-most stage wins through 12 races. The high to this point in a season is 11 stage wins, which was accomplished by this organization in 2020.
NEXT GEN NUMBERS: Elliott and Larson are among the three drivers with the most wins in the Next Gen era. Since the start of the 2022 season, both drivers have five victories. Byron is in a three-way tie for fourth in the category with four wins.
Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on what this weekend’s throwback scheme means to him: “This one means a lot. Those years were extremely crucial, not only for the number, but I’m not even sure I would have found racing had those years not been going on. If I wasn’t exposed then, I don’t know that I’d find it. Those years impacted me heavily and certainly sparked my interest to want to try to do it.”
Elliott on racing at Darlington: “Darlington (Raceway) has been a struggle over the years. We ran really good there my first trip (in the NASCAR Xfinity Series), but really ever since then it’s been hard to be consistently strong there. Both ends of the track are really different and it’s always kind of hard to get your car exactly like you want it on both ends. Obviously, I haven’t quite figured out how to do that. If I had to give a one-word answer on racing at Darlington, it would be challenging.”
Alan Gustafson, crew chief of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on what is key for running well at Darlington: “To be good at Darlington (Raceway), I think you’ve got to have a good handling car. (Turns) one and two are really fast. You have to be able to drive up the hill with security and turn and race across the center of the corner, run a lot of throttle and then turn down off of two with good front-end turn and stability. In (turns) three and four, you typically get loose into that corner and then tight through the center and free off, so it’s a barrage of issues. It’s very different loading end-to-end and how the car responds from the accelerations. It makes it tough, but it makes it really fun and gives you the opportunity to make a difference, you know, both with the car and the driver. I love the place. It’s one of the most unique tracks we’ve got and it’s super specific.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
