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Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott clinched five victories in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season. He, however, didn’t become an overnight sensation in NASCAR’s top-level series as he made 99 starts at Hendrick Motorsports before taking his first win.
Elliott’s 18 victories in his previous 163 starts show that he has got the hang of it. He is the main candidate to spend his entire racing career at Hendrick Motorsports. It’s a sign of good work by the man who guided him through his crucial career. Lance McGrew, former crew chief of HMS, however, stated that the 2020 Cup Champion’s upbringing gave him a great prospect to mentor.
After working with Hendrick Motorsports as a crew chief, Lance McGrew was asked to work with Elliott. At Elliott’s young age, McGrew identified him as a future NASCAR star.
McGrew said:
“It wasn’t just his driving ability. I have to pat Bill and Cindy (Elliott) on the back because he’s just so mentally tough; he never got rattled. That mental toughness, especially when you are having a bad day, it’s incredible that someone could be that focused and that skilled but still not on the ragged edge.”
McGrew retired from Hendrick Motorsports this month after 23 years. In the last couple of years, Chase Elliott has proven to be one of McGrew’s greatest success stories while working for the most successful Cup team in the history of the sport. In his eight-year-long Cup career, the #9 driver scored 18 wins, 137 top-10 finishes, 12 poles, and secured Championship titles in the 2014 NASCAR Xfinity Series and 2020 Cup Series.
Chase Elliott won 2022 NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver
Chase Elliott, the driver of the #9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports, won the 2022 National Motorsports Press Association’s (NMPA) Most Popular Driver Award for the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season. The 27-year-old clinched this honor for the fifth consecutive year in NASCAR’s top-level series.
It was the seventh time Elliott has won the Most Popular Driver award in his career as he won the Xfinity Series award twice.
Chase Elliott and the #9 Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports team will be seen in action next year in the NASCAR Cup Series at the iconic Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. The event will start on February 19, 2022.
