USA TODAY International Edition
ELLIOTT UNDAUNTED IN TAKING OVER NO. 24
Driver buoyed by support from Gordon
DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. The merchandise tent at Daytona International Speedway had a shortfall in “24” gear. There was a koozie and little else, and the screened autograph was that of Jeff Gordon, the retired four- time champion.
Chase Elliott’s swag, like his perceived possession of the 24, had not arrived yet. Even in the merchandise tent, a transition was ongoing.
It has been for Elliott, 20, since Gordon announced his retirement effective last season and the 2014 Xfinity Series titlist and son of two- time Daytona 500 winner Bill Elliott was anointed successor. It’s gone on since Gordon made it known that he wished for the No. 24 Chevrolet to remain in the Hendrick Motorsports stable after his departure. And since Elliott quietly watched the sentimental jaunt that was Gordon’s final traipse through the series.
Now, Gordon begins his next chapter as a Fox Sports NASCAR analyst. He continues his role at HMS as a team ambassador and car owner of Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet.
So the car, the mantel, the number now are Elliott’s. He is faced with multiple layers of pressure. His surname and résumé will contrive enough expectation. He slips into the cockpit of a program that entered the season finale at Homestead- Miami Speedway last year as one of four statistically viable for the championship. He’s following one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history. And if fans or co- workers were ever to momentarily forget such, the sight of someone other than Gordon climbing from the window of a car emblazoned with a No. 24 — albeit with a new sponsor — quickly will refresh their recollection.
“The biggest thing I have respect for in that sense is that was Jeff’s decision,” Elliott said of maintaining the car number. “And Jeff wanted the 24 car to stay at Hendrick Motorsports. He felt like Hendrick Motorsports just would not be the same if that number was gone, and for a guy who has been around and has done everything he’s done to make that place what it is, how can you not have respect for that?
“I’m just very honored that he is supportive and is OK with me driving that number that he’s done so much to make it what it is. I think it’s an honor more than anything.”
Fans attach emotional resonance to uniform numbers in all sports. A “42” is forever to be associated with MLB pioneer Jackie Robinson, a “99” with NHL legend Wayne Gretzky. Every city and sport has subsets of allegiances familiar and personal.
But unlike most other major sports, NASCAR does not allow for the retirement of car numbers. The digits are leased as properties each season to teams for their use on track or protec- tion of a brand — as Richard Childress Racing did with the stylized “3” for 12 years after the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. in the 2001 Daytona 500. Drivers who step in and replace legends eventually are left to forge their own identity with the number.
That fact, Childress said, enhances NASCAR’s generational continuity. He said that even with his grandson, Austin Dillon, in the race car since 2014, seeing the “3” on one of his race machines conjures memories of Earnhardt.
“If we hadn’t lost Dale in Daytona, he and I had already talked ( about) who we were going to put in the 3 car. He was going to help me pick the driver we wanted to put in the 3,” Childress said. “He knew he wanted to keep the 3 alive and keep it going and no different than Jeff Gordon wants to see that 24 or Richard Petty wanting to see that 43 out there racing and going. It keeps the fans’ thoughts and memories when you see that 24 come around next year, although it’s got ( sponsor) NAPA and a different driver. It’ll give you so many thoughts back into the history.”
When Dillon won the pole for the 2014 Daytona 500, he did not completely placate a legion of fans who still brandish black- andred Earnhardt garb, but it helped alleviate pressure. And it created a memory with the number and the black race car.
The “3” after all, also was a family number used by Childress before Earnhardt immortalized it with six championships at RCR. Dillon believes he slowly is making inroads to forging his identity with it. The evidence often is on the backs of fans as much as in their hearts.
“I’ve been seeing quite a few Dillon things,” said Dillon, who has two top- fives and nine top- 10s as a Cup driver. “It’s definitely a win for me when I see a kid with a “3” shirt on. I’m starting to create a little bit of a name and I think that comes from just being me. I wear it myself. For me it’s just fun to see the support at the track and to see that “3” car still going around the track.
“I think it means a lot for a lot of people.”
And to whoever eventually follows Dillon.