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Chase Elliott Rant “I don’t have a cool story to tell, It’s not lying cos I’m going to be tough”- This is how it happened 423 days ago
Chase Elliott Rant “I don’t have a cool story to tell, It’s not lying cos I’m going to be tough”- This is how it happened 423 days ago
Chase Elliott insists he wasn’t doing anything extravagantly “wild or crazy” last month, when he sustained the snowboarding injury that’s kept him out of the last six NASCAR Cup Series races. That would seem to rule out schussing off a Colorado cliff’s razor edge or dropping in from a helicopter into some perilous powder.
“I don’t have a cool story to tell,” Elliott said in a video conference Thursday, three days before his planned return to Cup Series competition. “It was just that perfect storm that could happen at any point in time, honestly.”
At the same time, Elliott said he knew that the damage that was done “was not good, and I knew that pretty quickly.” X-rays and tests would later reveal a fractured tibia in his left leg, but before that diagnosis was made, Elliott was already on the phone from the emergency room with his team owner, Rick Hendrick, and Alan Gustafson, the crew chief of his No. 9 Chevrolet. The team would need to make contingency plans for that weekend’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and potentially beyond, with Elliott being careful not to over-dramatize the situation but also being transparent about it.
“Obviously I didn’t know at that point in time and was just hoping for the best,” Elliott said, “but whatever it was gonna be, it was gonna be. It was done at that point, right? So I was more just thinking about tackling what it was and doing what the doctors told me to do to get back to 100% as soon as I could.”
Getting back to his day job happens this weekend, with Elliott returning to the No. 9 Chevy in time for this Sunday’s NOCO 400 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) at Martinsville Speedway. The event marks the 27-year-old driver’s third start of the season, and he’ll be pursuing the historic track’s grandfather-clock hardware carrying some extra hardware of his own — surgically placed screws that have helped his fracture heal.
Elliott was medically cleared earlier this week and consecutive days in the racing simulator convinced him he was ready to return. He said that the next two tracks on the schedule — Martinsville and the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway — would not have been his first choices to make his comeback, but he felt confident in his strength and what his doctors have told him about the integrity of his healing bone. But, he added, “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t going to be tough. I mean, it’s going to be tough.”
“Had a really good week in the gym, ran a lot of laps and got to a point where I felt like I was comfortable,” Elliott told NASCAR.com, noting that getting around the tight 0.526-mile track requires heavy braking for each corner entry. “Ultimately, that was why we made the decision that we did. If I didn’t feel like I could do it, I wouldn’t put us in the situation or I wouldn’t go, but I just think that you’ve got to get back in the swing at some point, and no better way than to just go do it.”
Elliott said Josh Berry, who filled in for five of the six races in the No. 9 Chevrolet, would be on standby this weekend at Martinsville should he need a relief driver. The longtime short-track standout performed capably in Elliott’s absence, netting a career-best showing of second place on April 2 at Richmond Raceway. IMSA champion Jordan Taylor subbed at the lone road course in that six-race stretch, making his Cup Series debut at Circuit of The Americas.
Elliott lauded the contributions of both fill-in drivers, noting especially Berry’s quick turnaround for Las Vegas on relatively short notice and Taylor’s show of speed on a challenging road circuit with his first experience in a Cup Series car.
“I thought they both did a really good job. Obviously, Josh’s background was very natural, and he’s done a done a really nice job and everybody on the team has enjoyed working with him,” Elliott said. “And Jordan jumping in there, I thought he had a lot of pace. I’d love to see him get another opportunity to run again, now that he has a little more time to think about things and digest what went on at COTA. But nonetheless, both did a really good job, and I appreciate them jumping in and the job that they did and the effort that they put in to help us.”
Elliott has just two starts in the books for 2023 at both ends of the pendulum — a 38th-place crash-out in the Daytona 500 followed by a runner-up result at Auto Club Speedway the next week. But his time away has relegated him to 34th in the Cup Series standings.
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Mick Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel are teaming up to represent Germany at the 2025 Race of Champions (ROC), taking place at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on March 7-8, 2025. First held in 1988, the event will see Schumacher and Vettel team up for the fourth time in their Race of Champions partnership.
They will face off against top competitors from across the motorsport spectrum, spanning single-seaters, rally, and endurance racing.
Vettel, who hasn’t ruled out an F1 return in the future, secured an outright victory at the Race of Champions in London back in 2015. He said in a statement:
“I’m delighted to be coming back to the Race Of Champions and teaming up with Mick again.
“It will be exciting to race in the former Olympic Stadium in Sydney that looks like it will be a great venue for the Race Of Champions. Sydney is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and I think Fredrik (Johnsson) and his team have selected an incredible venue for the next chapter of ROC.
“I am also supportive of ROC’s efforts taking steps towards becoming a sustainable motorsport event, which started at ROC Sweden.
“All the drivers who have the honour to participate in ROC fall in love with the event, because it reminds us about why we first started racing; pure competition and of course with the identical cars there are no excuses.
“I will do everything I can to help Germany win another ROC Nations Cup Title with Mick on the Friday evening, but I will not be doing him any favours when we are going for the outright win on the Saturday night, especially as he beat me in the Semifinals of the Individual ROC in Sweden in 2023!
“At ROC the racing is always intense on the track and everyone wants to win, but it’s also about putting on a great show for the fans.”
Schumacher, who recently revealed that securing a full-time seat with an F1 team was his ultimate goal, looks forward to the ROC at one of his favorite locations. He added:
“After finishing 2nd in the individual ROC in Sweden in 2023 and in the ROC Nations Cup in ROC Mexico with Seb, the goal this time has to be the overall winners trophy both in the ROC Nations Cup on Friday night and in the individual Race Of Champions on Saturday.
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Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has issued a warning to Ferrari as Lewis Hamilton prepares to join Charles Leclerc as a teammate next season. Hamilton will leave Mercedes after this season to team up with Leclerc, creating significant intrigue in the sport.
The deal between Hamilton and Ferrari marks a historic move in Formula 1. Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, is set to bring his wealth of experience and competitive spirit to the Maranello-based team. This partnership aims to revitalize Ferrari’s performance, which has seen mixed results in recent years. Hamilton’s unmatched drive and Leclerc’s emerging talent promise a powerful dynamic. Both drivers are motivated by the same goal: to secure championships for Ferrari, a team rich in history but seeking to return to its former glory. Their collaboration is anticipated to be a challenge for the competition and an opportunity to push each other to new heights.
Domenicali emphasized the challenge Hamilton will pose for Leclerc, given Hamilton’s talent, experience, and popularity. The seven-time world champion aims to secure an eighth title with Ferrari, and Domenicali noted the importance of clear team rules to prevent any potential conflicts.
“As a Ferrari enthusiast, it’s an extraordinary opportunity because Lewis is a centraliser. He wants to bring home the eighth title and become the best ever. There will have to be respect with Charles, but it’s clear that when you lower your visor… in any case, the team rules and management must be clear,” Domenicali told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Replacing Hamilton at Mercedes will be 18-year-old Italian prodigy Kimi Antonelli. There’s considerable buzz around Antonelli, alongside other rookies like Oliver Bearman and Jack Doohan who will also debut in F1 next season.
Domenicali expressed his excitement about the influx of young talent and the diverse personalities they bring to the grid. “The young drivers? There are many and what I like is that each one has his own personality,” he added. “We are in a fortunate phase, the drivers are not a problem. The lifeblood of young people is fundamental for us, what F1 must do is to get out of its self-referentiality. I want to see different faces and professionalism.”
This new era in F1 promises to be thrilling as veteran talent and young drivers collide on the track.
The leader of wins in the 2024 Cup Series season achieved his feats without much noise. Kyle Larson currently owns 6 race victories, double the stats held by Cup rivals closest to his heels. Despite numerous instances of on-track scuffles in Cup this year – from the Stenhouse-Busch fistfight to Hocevar spinning Burton – you would not find Kyle Larson on that list. And that is what earned him the respect of a veteran who used to be NASCAR’s Ironman.
Ricky Rudd, a NASCAR Hall of Famer, was a golden phenomenon in his time. The 23-time Cup Series winner was known for his tremendous grit and iron capacity to continue driving even amidst extreme health risks. So recognition from this former HMS driver is no mean feat – but we are talking about Kyle Larson the overachiever.
Making his Cup debut in 1975 at Rockingham Speedway, 18-year-old Ricky Rudd soon developed his signature style of racing. Among his competitors, Rudd earned a name for being a formidable racer. Although he was a clean racer, he taught rivals who messed with him a lesson, as they fell on the wrong side of his bumper. The scrappy driver, the 1997 Brickyard 400 winner, received a fitting nickname for his on-track personality – “Rooster.” His rowdiness was experienced firsthand by veterans like Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, and Dale Earnhardt.
But even the “Rooster” tipped his hat to Kyle Larson’s indomitable calmness of spirit. In a recent interview, the NASCAR Hall of Famer detailed his mindset when he went to race. He did not snuggle with his rivals so much: “You gotta dig down deep when you kind of go out against the competition. Especially when these guys are the best, you know, the best there is…These guys on the racetrack, they were my enemy. I didn’t treat them unkindly, but those were the guys that I purposely wasn’t super close friends with any of them…We were, you know, friends, but just more acquaintances than it was friendship.
Yet Rudd chose to salute Kyle Larson‘s starkly opposite attitude on the racetrack. The Charlotte Roval race winner rarely harbors ill will towards his rivals, and that is what sets his unique driving style, as Rudd said. “I don’t think everybody’s programmed that way. Some guys win and they find a different way to do it. You look at Kyle Larson today. I don’t think he gets mad at anybody, you know. I don’t think he could get mad. But he wins. He’s a heck of a driver and he wins races. Everybody’s got their own way of competing and doing what you have to do to be competitive.” Larson tied Rudd on the wins list when he clinched his 23rd career win last year in Las Vegas.
