Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott is gearing up to collect his first points of 2025 after turning up successful in the Clash at the Bowman Gray Stadium. Ahead of the Daytona 500, he was asked about President Donald Trump possibly attending the Great American Race, and he delivered an answer that was politically neutral at best.
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The POTUS was in attendance at the Super Bowl last weekend. Incidentally, Elliott was there too. However, they did not get the chance to meet each other. He told the press on Media Day, “Yeah, I wasn’t sitting next to him, but I saw that he was there at the game the other day.” He went on to talk about how Trump’s presence in Daytona would be beneficial.
“I think having a sitting President come and be a part of one of our biggest days of the year — certainly what I would call our biggest event of the year, I think is special,” he stated. “It certainly brings a lot of eyes and a different perspective to what we do down here for this race.”
Elliott was one among the many drivers who endorsed Trump for office back in 2016. But that support did not continue publicly in 2024. The driver has rather been focused on steadying his racecraft after some tough seasons and is still not there yet. If at all he is distancing himself from political opinions, it has to be a conscious choice he has made to concentrate more on his career.
“I don’t care who the President is at that point.”
Some would consider it the highest of honors to get a call from President Trump after winning the Daytona 500. But for Elliott, it just doesn’t matter as long as he reaches victory lane. It used to be a tradition for the sitting president to call the Great American Race’s winner. But he is unsure if it continues.
Elliott said, “I’ve never won, so I don’t know if that still happens or not. But I just think that — it just goes to show you that it’s a big deal, right? I don’t care who the President is at that point.. that’s just a cool thing. I had heard stories of that happening and I hope that still goes on…”
When pressed on whether he would like to get a call from the president on Sunday, he said, “That sounds like we would have won the race at that point, so that sounds like a good thing.” Maybe if Elliott could have known from his teammate William Byron if the sitting president had called him last year, he might have an added incentive to win.
