Elliott carries lessons of Daytona to Atlanta

HAMPTON, GA. — The lessons come at secondyear NASCAR driver Chase Elliott fast, every week.

As Elliott continues to discover, it can be often be a hard education. Take last week in the season-opening Daytona 500, NASCAR’s most prestigious race.

Elliott, who had started on the pole and won a qualifying race days earlier, led the race with three laps remaining. He appeared to be in control, his first career victory firmly in his grasp.

Then Elliott’s No. 24 Chevy — which had led 39 laps — ran out of gas. An opportunistic Kurt Busch blew past Elliott and won. Elliott finished 14th.

And Elliott, still winless in 42 career starts as he prepares for Sunday’s Folds Of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, was again left trying to figure out why.

“There are two things to look at when you think about Daytona for us,” said Elliott, who starts 11th Sunday. “A: We had to play the cards we were dealt. I felt like we planned to the best of our ability. B: We ran out of gas. Yes, we were leading and it’s easy to say, ‘Ah it was ours to lose. In reality, there were still three laps to go, and three laps at Daytona is a long time.

“For us to sit back and think that we had it locked down is kind of foolish. We were faced with circumstances that we really couldn’t control and we played what we had the best we could. Some days that is all you can do.”

Then comes the kicker for Elliott, 21, one of a handful of next-generation drivers NASCAR is counting on to become the faces of the sport:

“That was a devastating way to end a good week, for sure,” he said.

Elliott has come close to winning before. But he saw other young drivers such as Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher win last season.

That elusive first triumph could come at any time, possibly as early as Sunday at the track in suburban Atlanta that is also near his hometown of Dawsonville, Ga.

Elliott has plenty of resources from which to draw. He drives for Hendrick Motorsports — enough said — and crew chief Alan Gustafson has 20 career victories with drivers such as Kyle Busch, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon. Then there’s his dad, NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, who didn’t win until his eighth season on the Cup circuit (although it was his in his first fulltime ride).

Still, it took Bill Elliott 116 races before he won at Riverside, Calif., in the final race of the 1983 season.

“Yeah, he has brought that up a couple of times,” Chase said. “It’s one of those things where it’s crazy. Obviously, that was back in the ’80s and things were a lot different, but it kind of just goes to show you if it’s not your day, it’s not your day. As well as they ran, for him to not have a win until he did there at Riverside — it’s like I said, whenever it’s meant to be our day, it will be, and hopefully that day comes.”