One thing is for sure, Chase Elliott and his No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS team have taken the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series season by storm. The 18-year-old rookie has been on a tear since the drop of the green flag at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 22.
Elliott is coming off an enormous momentum swing after dealing with adversity last week when he was involved in a fender-bender on lap 39 at Dover International Speedway.
Lapped cars directly in front of Elliott wrecked, leaving the rookie driver no way to avoid them and causing damage to the left-front bumper of the NAPA Chevrolet. It was enough to bring Elliott to pit road twice for damage repair under caution.
Being relegated to 24th position for a lap-47 restart was not a task too tough for Elliott and crew. With a slightly battered and bruised NAPA Chevrolet, Elliott worked his way through the field with relative ease, cracking the top five again by lap 90. From there, Elliott turned what appeared to be a potentially disappointing day in to a third-place finish and increased his points’ lead to 26 over JR Motorsports teammate Regan Smith.
This weekend, Elliott and his championship-leading NAPA KNOW HOW team travel to Kansas Speedway and unfamiliar territory for the rookie driver. Kansas Speedway – a 1.5- mile tri-oval – is another track Elliott has never seen from inside a race car before. That has yet to slow him down this season, as the Dawsonville, Ga. native has won three times at tracks he’d previously never driven (Texas Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway, and Chicagoland Speedway).
With five races to go in the season, Elliott also leads Ty Dillon by 55 points in the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings.
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