One of the most harrowing experiences of Chase Elliott’s career was missing out on a major part of the 2023 Cup Series season after suffering extensive injuries during a snowboarding accident in Colorado. He was sidelined for six races and finished 17th in the points standings at the end of the year. In a recent interview with Lindsay Czarniak, he detailed the physical damage he incurred.
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“I was just out snowboarding with a friend of mine,” Elliott said. “Grew up snowboarding, and it was a very familiar place that I have been going to for a long time. Just kind of caught that perfect storm, landed on my knee wrong, and unfortunately, that was the day it was going to give out. Yeah, fractured it in a couple of different places.”
Elliott continued to mention that things could have been a lot worse considering the situation that he had been in, and is glad that all that is in the long past now. Czarniak went on to ask him if he had known right off the bat how severe the injury had been. Elliott admitted that he knew something was amiss and that he wouldn’t make it to Las Vegas for his next race.
Incidents like these are why many team owners are reluctant to let their drivers participate in extracurricular activities outside of NASCAR. But then, Elliott does not feel like he did anything wrong. He said that he hadn’t felt being irresponsible, but acknowledged that the timing of it wasn’t ideal by any means.
How did Rick Hendrick take the news of Elliott being injured?
Today, Elliott is the star driver of Hendrick Motorsports and its most popular icon. Having him out of the race car for an undetermined period of time would be disastrous from a team owner’s point of view. And yet, Rick Hendrick delivered all the support that he could.
The No. 9 driver pointed out how he had been nervous about making some phone calls to his superiors at the team. This likely included Mr. Hendrick. But they’d all been very empathetic and helped him overcome the slump.
Mr. Hendrick, notably, told the press at the time, “Chase’s health is our primary concern. He’s spoken with several members of our team and is understandably disappointed to miss time in the car. Of course, he has our full support, and we’ll provide any resources he needs.”
Elliott currently sits second in the 2025 Cup Series standings, fully recovered from the injury. He has been one of the most consistent drivers on the grid since he returned to the track, if not the most.
