USA TODAY International Edition
ELLIOTT, EARNHARDT READY TO WRITE NEXT CHAPTER
Teammates with similar stories vied for crown jewel
He dragged expectation to NASCAR’s highest level, the driver on the front row of the Daytona 500. Daddy raced, was a champion, ran a lot of laps around these high banks at Daytona International Speedway before finally winning the sport’s greatest race.
That son of the successful and wildly popular legend bore the benefit and the scrutiny of a notable last name as he toiled to make his own way. He showed promise by winning an under- series championship before taking that last step in his father’s footsteps, and out of his shadow.
That driver on the front row of the Daytona 500 is actually both of them — albeit separated by 21 years, a literal lifetime to one of them: pole- sitter Chase Elliott. By leading the procession to the green flag on Sunday, Elliott began his second season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, where his father, Bill, won the 1988 championship and the Daytona 500 in 1985 and 1987.
To his right will be Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose father and namesake was a seven- time series champion and won the Daytona 500 in 1998. This is an Earnhardt who, at 42, believes he still has much to do and has plied the garage of a track where he’s won two Daytona 500s ( 2004 and 2014) with the spring of a rookie’s step all Speedweeks.
Few have the perspective on what Elliott is trying to accomplish like Earnhardt. And as Elliott, 21, prepared for his second Daytona 500 — and his second time starting on the pole — Earnhardt thinks his young Hendrick Motorsports teammate might have entered the series in a more pressurized environment than he did in 2000, partly because Elliott also had the scrutiny of replacing four- time series champion Jeff Gordon in the iconic No. 24 Chevrolet.
“He’s got a lot of pressure on him,” Earnhardt said. “When I went into Cup racing, man, I had my father as my boss. I had a security blanket. I didn’t worry about any of that stuff. I never worried about my job. I was going to get plenty of rope to learn and get better. And he’s driving for Hendrick.
“I couldn’t imagine going into Rick’s car as a rookie. Even though he’s got his dad supporting him and that to lean on, man, the pressure to drive that 24 car must be immense.”
Elliott might feel it, but he doesn’t show it publicly, perhaps except for his penchant for excess apology when a potential breakthrough run for a Cup win collapsed last season. And he’s not asked his teammate about how this all was for him.
“I can’t say we talked about some of those things in particular,” Elliott said, “but he has been a good teammate and a good one to lean on and especially at places. … You can tell the places he feels really confident about because he’s more open and willing to talk and share. He’s willing to talk and share about anywhere, but he really likes to share about places he feels really, really good about. This being one of them.”
Absolutely one of them. Earnhardt looks and acts nothing like a driver in the autumn phase of a career, likely because many things feel new and precious again after nearly having it all wrested away when he was forced to miss half of the 2016 season because of a concussion that plagued his vision and balance.
This may have been a sort of torch- passing ceremony, if the elder pushed the latest next- great-NASCAR-hope to a first Daytona 500 victory. This would be an instant classic if the insidiousness of concussions stole what Earnhardt has worked so hard to recover.
This was the story of two teammates with obviously potent Chevrolets taking the measure of each other on NASCAR’s grandest day. And was incredibly interesting to watch between the master and the pupil who has displayed an aptitude that has impressed Earnhardt. Elliott, Earnhardt said, is “already pretty damned bad- ass at this game.”
Scores of potential winners will have much to do in ruining this tale, former 500 winners Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano among them. Logano’s Team Penske comrade, Brad Keselowski, might have had the best car this Speedweek.
That driver on the front row, he’ll work it out when the time comes.