9 CHASE ELLIOTT
Age: 28 (Nov. 28, 1995)
Hometown: Dawsonville, Georgia
Resides: Dawsonville, Georgia
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson
Standings: 4th
No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, will be available to members of the media in the Talladega Superspeedway media center on Saturday, April 20, at 7:55 a.m. local time.
TEXAS TRIUMPH: Chase Elliott scored his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season last Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, snapping a 42-race winless streak. After starting 24th, the team’s strategy to gain track position in the first stage worked out when the yellow flag waved while Elliott was leading during the cycle of green-flag pit stops. Elliott ended stage one in seventh and followed that up with a 10th-place result in stage two. In the final stage, the 28-year-old driver managed to hold off his competitors through double overtime to claim his 19th career premier series victory (third on the Hendrick Motorsports wins list) and his first at Texas. It was also the Dawsonville, Georgia, native’s first win with Hooters as the primary partner on the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
SOMETHING’S COOKING: So far in the 2024 season, Elliott has one win (Texas), three top-five finishes and four top-10s – all coming in the last five races. He is tied with Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron for the second-best average finish (10.33), has the fourth-best average running position (10.61) and has spent the fourth-most laps inside the top five (874) and the top 10 (1,521). Elliott has led 126 laps this season, including the record-extending 80,000th for Hendrick Motorsports. He currently sits fourth in the Cup Series point standings, only 32 markers behind the leader.
KEEP THE STREAK ALIVE: After scoring a fifth-place finish at Richmond Raceway, a third-place result at Martinsville Speedway and a victory at Texas, Elliott is riding a streak of three consecutive top-five finishes. His most recent streak of three straight top-five results came last summer at Sonoma Raceway, Nashville Superspeedway and the Chicago Street Course. Elliott’s longest streak of five top fives in his Cup Series career has occurred twice (2019 and 2022).
NEXT GEN NUMBERS: Since the debut of the Next Gen Cup Series car in 2022, Elliott has the best average finish among his competitors (12.45) and is tied for the fourth-most wins (six) following his victory at Texas.
CUT TO THE CHASE: Elliott has a strong history on drafting-style tracks in the Cup Series. Across 37 starts on tracks of that type (Atlanta Motor Speedway since its reprofiling in 2022, Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway), he has three victories, nine top-five finishes, 15 top-10s, five pole positions and 506 laps led. In addition to his points-paying triumphs at Atlanta (2022) and Talladega (2019 and 2022), Elliott has two DAYTONA 500 qualifying race wins (2017 and 2018).
‘DEGA NUMBERS: This weekend, Elliott will make his 17th Talladega Cup Series start. The Dawsonville, Georgia, native has two victories on the 2.66-mile superspeedway – most recently in October of 2022 – and has collected five top-five finishes and eight top-10s across his 16 premier series starts at the track. This track is one of four where he has multiple Cup Series victories. Elliott’s average finish (13.63) ranks fourth on the all-time list of drivers with at least six Cup Series starts at Talladega. Additionally, at the Alabama track, he has earned the most overall points (189) in the Next Gen car, the most stage points (107) in the last 10 races and the third-most stage points (118) among active drivers.
MOVING ON UP: Following Sunday’s victory at Texas, No. 9 crew chief Alan Gustafson has 39 Cup Series wins to his credit. He’s second in active crew chief wins behind Rodney Childers (40). Of Gustafson’s 39 triumphs, 19 have come with Elliott, 11 with Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon, five with Hall of Famer Mark Martin and four with Kyle Busch.
DYNAMIC DUO: Elliott and Gustafson are in their ninth season together and are currently the longest active driver and crew chief combo in the Cup Series garage. The duo is ranked second among active pairings with 19 points-paying victories. Gustafson and Elliott earned their first Cup Series title in 2020 and the team captured the regular-season championship in 2022.
FOUR TIRES FAST: On lap 84 at Texas, the No. 9 pit crew laid down the fastest four-tire pit stop (9.076 seconds) of the 2024 season, according to data from Racing Insights. The over-the-wall squad has remained the same since 2018 and currently holds the fastest average four-tire pit stop time (10.724 seconds) on the season. The 2021 Mechanix Wear Most Valuable Pit Crew award-winning group is comprised of Chad Avrit (rear-tire changer), Jared Erspamer (tire carrier), John Gianninoto (fueler), Nick O’Dell (front-tire changer) and T.J. Semke (jackman).
GET UP AND GO: NAPA Auto Parts, the Atlanta-based company that has been a primary partner of Elliott in all nine of his full-time seasons at Hendrick Motorsports, will be on board the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 this weekend at Talladega. This will mark the 12th time the brand has served as the primary sponsor of the Elliott at the Alabama track in the Cup Series. NAPA was on board in October of 2022 when Elliott and the No. 9 team scored their most recent Talladega victory.
FABULOUS 40: In 2024, Hendrick Motorsports is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Among the categories that the organization holds the NASCAR Cup Series record for are all-time wins (306), poles (250), laps led (80,569) and championships (14). With Chase Elliott’s win at Texas Motor Speedway, the team has won at least five races a year in 22 of the last 24 seasons. It is also the second time the team has won at least five of the first nine races in a season (2007 was the other occurrence).
FROM THE POLE: Hendrick Motorsports is the first team to reach 250 pole positions in the Cup Series. The milestone was hit last Saturday with Kyle Larson’s pole at Texas, his third in a row and the team’s fourth consecutive top starting spot in the 2024 season. Across 31 tracks, 20 drivers have won poles for the squad including all four of the team’s current drivers. Team vice chairman Jeff Gordon’s 81 pole positions are the most by a driver in the organization’s history and Daytona International Speedway tops the track list at 23 pole positions.
WINNING TRIO: With five wins among Elliott, Larson and William Byron in 2024, the Rick Hendrick-owned team has had three of its drivers win within the first nine races. The organization also achieved this in 2007 (six wins), 2009 (three wins), 2021 (three wins) and 2022 (four wins). Hendrick Motorsports accounts for five of the 10 instances where a team has seen three of its drivers win in the opening nine races.
TALLYING TOP FIVES: In the last five races in the 2024 season, at least two drivers from the squad have finished in the top five. At Texas, Elliott finished first and Byron placed third. At Martinsville Speedway, it was the Byron-Larson-Elliott trio in a 1-2-3 finish. At Richmond Raceway, Larson placed third and Elliott was fifth. Byron won and Alex Bowman was fourth at Circuit of The Americas (COTA). Bowman and Larson finished fourth and fifth at Bristol Motor Speedway, respectively. This is the organization’s longest streak since a seven-race stretch from Darlington Raceway to Pocono Raceway in the 2021 season.
PIT POWER: Based on Racing Insights data, all four Hendrick Motorsports pit crews rank in the top seven among Cup Series teams for the fastest average four-tire pit stop. The No. 9 pit crew tops the board (10.724 seconds), followed by the No. 24 pit crew in third (10.874 seconds) and the No. 5 pit crew in fourth (10.890 seconds). The No. 48 pit crew is seventh (11.196 seconds).
VICTORY FORMATION: Gordon’s six wins at Talladega Superspeedway top the organization’s list, followed by Jimmie Johnson and Elliott’s two triumphs each. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Terry Labonte, Ken Schrader and Brian Vickers each have one victory at Talladega while driving for the organization. The seven drivers to win at this track are the most for one team.
DRAFTING DARLINGS: The Concord, North Carolina-based team has 33 wins on drafting tracks, which is the highest total in the series and 13 more than the next-best teams. The drafting tracks on the circuit are 2.66-mile Talladega, 2.5-mile Daytona and 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway (since its reprofiling for the 2022 season). In addition to its 14 victories at Talladega, the team has 16 wins at Daytona and three triumphs at Atlanta.
NEXT GEN NOTES: Since the debut of the Next Gen car in 2022, Byron has the most wins (three) on drafting tracks and Elliott ranks second (with two). They are the only drivers with multiple victories on that track type in NASCAR’s current stock car used in Cup Series competition. In addition to winning this year’s DAYTONA 500, Byron went to victory lane at Atlanta in March of 2022 and July of 2023. Elliott scored wins at Atlanta in July of 2022 and Talladega in October of 2022.
TO THE POINTS: Over the past four races at Talladega (all in the Next Gen era), Hendrick Motorsports has three of the top four drivers in points scored. Elliott leads all drivers (189 points) by 33 markers, Byron ranks third (154) and Larson is fourth (124).
SETTING THE STAGE: In the last 10 races at Talladega (dating back to 2019), all four of the team’s drivers are in the top seven in stage points earned. Elliott ranks first (107), Byron is second (80), Bowman is sixth (63) and Larson is seventh (55).
Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on his mindset for superspeedway racing: “Superspeedway racing is one of those things that, I don’t know that we all love to do it all the time, but it’s something that I’ve tried to embrace and I’ve tried to try to get better at and put time into. I think it’s easy to look at those events and just kind of skip over them and be like, ah, you know, it’s just a superspeedway race. But they do offer a race win and they offer a lot of points and all those things are still on the line. So, I’ve tried to put emphasis on them. I enjoy going over there (to Talladega Superspeedway). It’s close to home for me.”
Alan Gustafson, crew chief of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on the opportunities to score points at Talladega: “There’s obviously three laps that pay points, so you’re going to want to be as high as you can get for all three of those. You want to get as many stage points as you can. You want to finish as high as you can and ultimately win stages and win the race. Everybody’s going to try to do the same thing and there’s going to be some different ways to get there. It could depend on how you qualify or where you start, how your car is and what opportunities you have. I don’t think there’s a set roadmap to success, but certainly everybody’s going to try to get as many points as they can.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
