Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at the Chicago Street Course.
Media Availability Quotes:
Besides extra media, was this week different than any other week?
“No… you know, you’ve been around me and Alan (Gustafson) long enough to know that by Tuesday, really even Monday, it’s kind of back to work. I feel like we did a good job enjoying it. I try to embrace those moments, you know, as I’ve told you guys a lot and tried to slow it down as much as I could, just because that’s an important time to cherish and remember. All of those things are extremely special, but there’s another race in a week and the train keeps rolling. We got back to work and just kind of started on our Chicago prep like a normal week would have been.”
Is there anything that you saw, if you saw any sort of highlights of the celebrations or anything, that you feel like really either kind of struck you or made you think, wow, that’s what made it really cool?
“Yeah, I mean just having lived it, right? Having lived it and the experience with Rhealynn there after the race and just seeing her kind of open up and see her excitement. You know, go from this shy little girl that didn’t know anything about racing to celebrating in victory lane with us at the end of the night. It was just really, really special to kind of see that transition. To have my mom there and other family members and friends — those things just make those moments unique and I’m grateful for them. Just the whole experience was incredible. So, yeah, couldn’t really have asked for any more last week. You know, obviously, it all worked out in our favor and hopefully we can do this more often.”
Whether it’s talking about advocating for the Nashville race near the city or you were praising the L.A. Coliseum or praising here when we first started the Chicago Street Race — you’ve been one of the biggest advocates for racing near city and bringing it to the people. We don’t know if this is the last one of this race or not. But what do you think the legacy of bringing the street race has been? Was this proof of concept in drivers minds that this can work at other places?
“Yeah, I mean, I think it’s a great idea, for sure. And I’m all for that. The biggest reason I’m such a big advocate of Nashville is because it, to me, oval track racing is kind of our bread and butter, right? So we have that there. This is a great second choice to get to a city, but there’s nothing that’s going to top giving people a true short track… ‘What is NASCAR… Here it is’. You know, take an Uber from Broadway to the racetrack and go watch. Like to me, that is the biggest home run waiting to happen that we’ve had a long time. But this is a good second choice, as far as getting inside a big city market. It’s been a lot of fun from my perspective to come do it. It’s been a lot of fun for friends and family and people to come to this race, like just from my personal side, because it’s so different than what they typically see. You know, they go get nice dinners. If I’m busy at the racetrack on Saturday, they have things to go do. So all that stuff, selfishly, has been has been a lot of fun.
You know, look, I if I lived here and I wasn’t a NASCAR fan, I could totally see the frustration of roads being blocked and traffic and all that sort of thing. So look, I get it. I get it. But it’s been fun for us. I hope there’s been more positive than there has been negative for the people of Chicago. Whether this is the last year or not, I appreciate them having us, even the ones that didn’t want us. I look forward to wherever it goes next. I hope that somewhere down the line, we can take it to a different city, you know, just to switch it up… just like the championship race rotating. I think a city street course moving around would be really healthy and good. If this is last year, you know, I don’t think there’s any bridges burned. I just think maybe we move it around and, who knows, maybe come back another time.”
What lessons do you think this sport has learned from racing in downtown Chicago that could be applied maybe elsewhere?
“Well, you know, I kind of look at it more from a competition perspective when I’m thinking about your question. One thing that, which obviously I’m careful with this because I haven’t been on the track today, but I know and I can attest from last year or I’m sorry, the first year to last year, the way they repeated the track and just the measurements and the corner angles and braking zones – all the things were extremely similar. Where they had walls placed, like all that stuff was done really, really well. So I don’t know what process went into that, if it’s track scans or some sort of virtual representation or virtual model that they made up, but that’s the first thing that’s come to my mind that I’ve been most impressed by is how we’ve had the ability to recreate the track year to year. And I think if you have street courses and things from a driver’s side, it is nice to not have massive changes on the road from year to year because it can be tough to adapt to that stuff.
But that’s been fun. Obviously the marketing side is a whole other answer. But yeah, it’s been fun from a competition perspective, and I think they’ve done a good job with it.”
GM PR