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Chase Elliott is gearing up for NASCAR's third draft race of the 2024 season, as the Cup Series heads to the famed Talladega Superspeedway for the GEICO 500 scheduled for April 21 at 3:00 PM ET.
The 2.66-mile oval in Lincoln, Alabama is the biggest oval on the NASCAR schedule, featuring a whopping 33 degree banking in the first two turns. The #9 Hendrick Motorsports driver has tamed the track on two occasions, winning the Spring race in 2019 and the Fall race in 2022.
Ahead of the GEICO 500, Chase Elliott said mastering the track isn't difficult, but positioning themselves in the right spot in the draft is a challenging task. He said it was akin to a guessing game, with lots of luck factoring into it.
"It's not a place that is difficult to necessarily drive, but when you get out there in the draft and you're trying to position yourself in the right spot, a lot of it is a little bit of a guessing game. And a lot of it is out of your hands, so a lot has to go your way," Elliott said via PRN.
Chase Elliott recorded a 12th-and seventh-place result in his previous two visits to Talladega last year. He also boasts the best average finish at the track, 13.6, with five top five and 8 top ten finishes in his 16 starts at the track.
The #9 Chevy driver lines up ninth on the grid for the GEICO 500 this Sunday, ahead of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates. Alex Bowman starts in 12th, William Byron in 13th and Kyle Larson in the last row.
The Dawsonville, Georgia native recently snapped his 42-race winless streak with a visit to victory lane at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend. He will be aiming to clinch back-to-back victories this weekend.
Kevin Harvick acknowledges Chase Elliott victory as a "huge win for the sport"
The NASCAR Cup Series' most popular driver went winless last year, recording his worst Cup Series campaign of his career. The #9 HMS driver had a steady start to his 2024 season, but made significant strides in recent weeks, culminating in a race win at Texas.
Kevin Harvick acknowledged that the sport needed Chase Elliott back in victory lane and was happy to see him return to winning ways. In a recent episode of Happy Harvick, the 2014 Cup champion recapped Elliott's tumultous 2023 campaign and his recent turnaround.
"Huge win for our sport. Super happy for Chase. We all need him to be successful and sometimes he feels that pressure and I would assume that it probably weighs on him a little bit. He's had a ton of things that have weighed on him really over the last couple of years with his injury, getting suspended, switching to the new car," said Harvick.
After nine rounds into the season, Chase Elliott currently sits fourth in the driver's standings, 32 points adrift of teammate Kyle Larson who leads the standings.
