Chase Elliott wins first Cup Series title, joins father Bill as NASCAR champion
“I just never would have thought that this year would have gone like it has,” Elliott said. “I mean, NASCAR Cup Series champion, are you kidding me? Unreal.”
Elliott’s father, Bill Elliott, won his only Cup Series championship in 1988. As with his son, eventually, Bill Elliott was the reigning holder of NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver award at the time, an honor he received a record 16 times in his Hall of Fame career.
Chase Elliott is the reigning two-time winner of the award, a testament to not only his bloodlines but also his talent, including becoming the youngest winner of NASCAR’s Nationwide Series (now the Xfinity Series) in 2014. It also didn’t hurt that, when Elliott was promoted to the top level in 2016, he replaced the ultra-successful but far from universally beloved Jeff Gordon in Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 24 Chevrolet.
Now driving for Hendrick in a car bearing the same number, 9, that was most closely associated with his father’s storied career, Elliott gave his team its first Cup Series triumph since 2016, when Jimmie Johnson won the last of his record-tying seven championships. As fate would have it, Johnson was competing Sunday in his 686th and final race as a full-time driver.
Asked what he would remember about the occasion, Johnson replied, “Chase Elliott won his first championship. I’m so happy for that guy.
“I can recall going snowboarding with Bill out in Colorado and Chase was maybe 8 years old on skis, super quiet, wouldn’t say much,” Johnson, 45, continued. “To watch him grow up, and to be around him and to give him some advice from time to time has really been meaningful for me.”
“Oh my gosh, I mean, to share a moment like that, Jimmie’s last race, to win and lock the championship,” said Elliott, “those are moments you can only dream, you know, and this is a dream.
“Just hoping I don’t ever wake up.”
Elliott topped the field with 153 laps led, including the final 43 after he passed Logano. When he crossed the finish line, Keselowski was a distant 2.740 seconds behind in second place. It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Elliott, however; he started the Phoenix event at the back of the field after his car failed a prerace inspection.
Keselowski, as with his Penske teammate Logano, was seeking his second Cup Series championship. Hamlin, who turns 40 later this month, was stymied yet again in his quest for the overall prize after notching seven race wins this season and reaching 44 for his career.
“No one has won more than we have over the last two years. Pretty proud what this team is doing,” Hamlin said. “We’ll come back and do it again next year.”
“Obviously when you don’t win it, it hurts. It definitely stings,” said the 30-year-old Logano, who won his championship in 2018.
In repeating his father’s feat with a Cup Series title, Elliott did what Dale Earnhardt Jr. could not. Earnhardt, whose father was a seven-time winner of the championship (equaling the mark held by Johnson and Richard Petty), won the Most Popular Driver award for 15 straight years until he retired in 2017 and Elliott took over as the darling of NASCAR fans’ eyes.
“Been a lot of fun watching this dude make history,” Earnhardt tweeted at Elliott on Sunday evening. “Proud to know ya.”
The Elliotts became the third father-and-son duo to win Cup Series titles, following Lee and Richard Petty and Ned and Dale Jarrett.
Of his prerace advice to his son, the 65-year-old Elliott revealed that it included telling him that “we’ve had a heck of a year, and whatever Chase does today, we’re so proud of him.”
“When I’m dead and gone and my dad is dead and gone, he and I will share a championship with the last name Elliott forever,” Chase Elliott said. “I don’t think it gets any cooler than that.”
Read more:
