Chase Elliott Rules Out Appearances in Tony Stewart’s SRX Series in 2024

Right in the inaugural season of the Superstar Racing Experience series, Chase Elliott held off three-time Cup champ Tony Stewart and the legendary Bill Elliott to bag the victory at the season finale at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. Just the following year, Elliot backed that victory up with another triumph in the 2022 season finale, defeating Stewart again. Despite his success, he doesn’t want to race in the SRX, atleast in 2024. Might come off as a surprise, but it is true.

Elliott didn’t return to the SRX last year. Considering his disastrous season in the Cup Series, the decision was quite understandable. Elliott looks all set to rebound in 2024, and many might have expected Elliott to return to dirt racing. Sadly, that is not going to happen.

When asked about it, Elliott said, “I’m good. Two for two. I’m very content with hanging it up.” So then, what are his dirt racing or short track racing plans for this year? What will the former Cup Series champion do during the midweek? “I don’t have a set schedule at the moment,” said the Dawsonville native. “We’re just kinda playing it by year and just seeing where my schedule’s at as we get closer to the summer…so nothing super-structured.”

A new voice in Elliott’s ears for 2024

Starting from 2024, Trey Poole, who is also Elliott’s cousin, will be serving as his spotter. Elliot’s former spotter, Eddie D’Hondt moves to the Stewart-Haas Racing garage to spot Josh Berry. D’Hondt has been with the #9 team since 2016 and after almost a decade, Elliott chose to sever bonds with him. The drivers normally have the final say when it comes to choosing the spotter for themselves. On that note, one might wonder why Elliott chose to let D’Hondt go, especially when the former had won his sole Cup Series champion with D’Hondt on his team.

“We just got to a point where we felt like if we were going to make a change, now was the right time to do it,” said the racer. “Ed’s been a great teammate, I love Ed. We still have a good relationship even today. He’s been a huge part of our team for a long time. I don’t want that to get lost in translation. I think a lot of him as a person, and he’s done a lot for me.”

Chase Elliott said changing his spotter for 2024 was a group decision. His cousin, Trey Poole, who has been the teams second spotter at races where they use multiple ones, is replacing Eddie D’Hondt this year (D’Hondt landed with Josh Berry). Elliott explains the move: pic.twitter.com/yxDnIMkbRy

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) January 19, 2024

According to Elliot, ‘Ed’ and Trey are quite similar in the way they see their jobs. “Ed was also low drama and does not have an ego, too. So in a lot of ways, very similar to what we’ve had. But just enough of a change that we wanted to try and kind of see how it goes,” he explained.