Chase Elliott’s victory in the Texas Motor Speedway was one of the most important ones of his Cup Series career. He broke a winless drought that spanned 42 races and 18 months to record his 19th win in the top tier. The accomplishment brought forward a key stat that compared him to his father, the racing icon Bill Elliott.
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Chase’s 19th victory has come after 295 starts. In this time, he has secured 96 top fives, 156 top tens, and 1 championship. On the other side of the table, Bill’s 19th victory came after just 220 starts. By the time, he had secured 68 top fives, 123 top tens, and no championships. What strikingly separates the duo in this is the Cup Series champion title. However, Chase’s title is pretty much evened out by the fewer number of races that it took Bill to achieve 19 wins.
Regardless of comparisons, there is no question that the Elliott men have created one of the strongest dynasties in NASCAR. Apart from raking in victories, they also hold exclusive rights to the Most Popular Driver award. By the time Bill retired, he’d won a championship (1988). At just 28 years of age, there is a high probability that Chase exceeds his father’s count in the years that follow.
Chase Elliott pays tribute to Alan Kulwicki in Texas, a driver who beat his father
After reaching the victory lane in the Old West, Chase drove his #9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy Camaro backward an entire lap. The lap was to celebrate breaking the drought and pay an ode to the yesteryear legend, Alan Kulwicki. He said, as reported by the Orlando Sentinel, “It’s been a dream of mine to pay respect to the late Alan Kulwicki. It was pretty emotional for me. He beat dad back in the day.”
The reason behind Chase paying respect was the orange paint scheme that his car featured – courtesy of the primary sponsor Hooters. The restaurant chain was featured on Kulwicki’s car in his final two years of racing and when he won the 1992 championship by edging past Bill Elliott on the number of laps led in the finale.
“As soon as the race was over, I was like, ‘Man, we finally got our opportunity to do it and pay respect to him and the partnership,” Chase said. “Just to see that whole deal come full circle with his championship run, outrunning my dad, they’re now a partner of mine, ended a long winless drought for them and myself too, and our team — really special in a lot of ways. Pretty fitting when you look at it.”
The Hendrick Motorsports star will head to Talladega this weekend for the next Cup Series race. He will hope to make use of the momentum that his team has now gained and extend his win streak with yet another stellar performance on the superspeedway.
