Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Elliott takes Daytona 500 pole again
DAYTONA BEACH — Chase Elliott learned a lot during his first Daytona 500 last year. Now the young NASCAR Cup driver hopes to put those lessons to good use this week as he once again starts with the pole position for this coming Sunday’s race.
Elliott edged out Hendricks Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. with a lap of 192.872 miles per hour during qualifying at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday. Elliott became the fifth driver in series history to win consecutive Daytona 500 poles, joining Fireball Roberts, Buddy Baker, Ken Schrader and his father, Bill Elliott.
“I think that’s really cool,” Chase Elliott said of the feat after qualifying.
Chase and Bill Elliott also become the fourth fatherson duo to win the Daytona 500 pole, joining Richard and Kyle Petty; Bobby and Davey Allison; and Dale and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Chase’s pole marks the third straight year in which the Hendricks No. 24 Chevrolet won the top spot — all under the guidance of crew chief Alan Gustafson — who joined Elliott’s uncle Ernie Elliott (1985-87) as the only crew chiefs to win three straight poles.
“I’m happy to have a small part in that, that’s for sure,” Chase Elliott added. “I know how much success they had down here and how much they enjoyed coming down here. It means a lot to me.”
But Elliott’s success was tempered a bit based on the disappointment of last year’s race in which the rookie crashed early.
“Daytona was certainly a struggle for us last year as far as getting in wrecks and tearing up our cars,” Elliott recalled. “Hopefully we can just make it to the end of the race next week. That’s a huge battle at times.
“Qualifying well is great, but I don’t necessarily know if the starting spot means quite as much as the pit-row selection. That first pit stop can be a big benefiting factor if you use it to your advantage. I think we have some good things and notes that we learned today to try to help next week and try to capitalize on that and try to put us in a good spot,” he added. “The biggest thing as everybody knows is that it’s not where you start but where you finish.”
Gustafson believes his young driver will learn from last year’s mistakes.
“I don’t know if it was our worst performance all year; that was maybe the only time all year that I saw some of the pressure affect him. … He needs to learn from it and I think he will.”
Earnhardt Jr., meanwhile, made his return to the race track Sunday after missing the final 18 races of last season while recovering from debilitating concussion-like symptoms.
“Ain’t much to it,” Earnhardt said of his Sunday run. “The car does all the work ... I didn’t know where we stood against the competition yesterday at practice. It was real hard to figure out what guys are doing and how they are trimming their cars out and whether to trust the speeds we were seeing.
“It’s good to be on the front row. I certainly would have loved to have gotten the pole, but my boss man is happy. He’s got to be thrilled to have Hendricks cars up front,” he added.
Brad Keselowski ran third, with Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. rounding out the top five.
Forty-two drivers took to the track Sunday for the two qualifying sessions to try to earn the top two spots in the 500. The last pole winner to win the Daytona 500 was Dale Jarrett (2000).