Chase Elliott recently appeared on the Bobby Bones show, where he revealed an unheard story about Dale Earnhardt Jr. It took the viewers back in time when Elliott used to drive the No. 24 car left vacant when Jeff Gordon retired from full-time Cup racing.Today, Elliott drives the No. 9 Chevy Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports, a number previously driven by his legendary father and 1988 NASCAR Cup Series (known as the Winston Cup Series at the time) champion, Bill Elliott. He is currently in his 10th year driving full-time at the Cup level.“It was actually Dale Jr. (who) really deserves the credit for the number switch from my perspective because he's like, hey, if you're gonna make this change, he knew I wanted to do it, but I never really said, you need to speak up about this right now becase you'll probably not gonna have another opportunity to do it,” Elliott mentioned. “Thanks to his nudging, I reached out to the boss.”The No. 9, which was once driven by the likes of Len Brown, Frank Luptow, and Joe Weatherly, moved to the Elliott family fold when Bill Elliott joined Ray Evernham’s start-up team in 2001. Three years later, Evernham tapped Kasey Kahne as the driver of the No. 9 Dodge, marking his rookie season in the series.By 2010, his final season with the No. 9, Kahne was driving under the banner of Petty Enterprises. After that, the iconic number was wheeled by Australian speedster Marcos Ambrose and Sam Hornish Jr., but never on a full-time schedule.The number remained unused for about three years before Chase Elliott took over in 2018. The #24 was given to William Byron, who still drives it for Hendrick Motorsports. It’s with the same car that Byron got Hendrick Motorsports its 300th win in the NASCAR Cup Series at Texas Motor Speedway on September 24, 2023.Chase Elliott shares his thoughts on the NASCAR playoffsAfter missing last year, Chase Elliott is heading to the playoffs in 2025, thanks to his win at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The Dawsonville native now has a shot to earn his second NASCAR Cup Series championship.However, surviving through the 10-race postseason isn’t easy. Execution is the key with no room for errors. Elliott, who has been driving in the Cup Series for nearly a decade now, knows that.“Ten weeks is a long time. Like, that's a lot of racing, and it's almost enough time for someone to have a good few weeks, go through a stretch of not-so-good weeks and then get good again,” said the 2020 Cup Series champion. “It's a lot of racing, you know, over two months.”“So, I think sometimes you kind of get these questions about the playoffs, and it's like, oh, there's just the playoffs, like, it's just one thing, right? And it's not. It's a long period of time. And a lot of long hours working, in the shop, and travel. It’s just there's 10 races and a lot can happen in 10 weeks,” he added.Next up for Chase Elliott is the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Marking the first race of the 2025 playoffs, the 368-lap event will be televised on USA (6 pm ET onwards) with radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.