How Dale Earnhardt Jr. Helped Chase Elliott Claim the No. 9 and Continue His Father Bill Elliott’s NASCAR Legacy

Chase Elliott has carried on the legacy of his father Bill Elliott not only by stepping into NASCAR to race stock cars but also by piloting the same No. 9 car his father once made iconic.

The No. 9 had been in the hands of several drivers over the years, including Len Brown, Frank Luptow, Joe Weatherly, Roy Tyner, and Pete Hamilton, but none left a mark like NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott. He first claimed the number in his 1976 debut with the family-owned team and later guided his unsponsored 1978 Mercury to a pair of top-10s at Daytona.

Harry Melling’s automotive tool company brought backing in the 1980s, and Elliott commanded a win in the 1985 Daytona 500, the first of 11 victories that season. In 1988, the No. 9 carried him to six more wins and his lone Cup championship.

By 1991, with Coors Light sponsorship, the car had a fresh blue look, and Elliott added one more victory at Daytona before moving to Junior Johnson’s No. 11 the following year.

The number returned to the Elliott fold in 2001, when Bill joined Ray Evernham’s start-up Dodge program. Kasey Kahne succeeded him in 2004, beginning his rookie campaign in the No. 9. Kahne’s tenure with the number lasted through 2010 under Richard Petty Motorsports.

Australian Marcos Ambrose then took over for four seasons before the number found its way back to Chase Elliott, who captured the 2014 Xfinity Series championship with three wins in his rookie year with JR Motorsports.

When Chase graduated to the Cup Series with Hendrick Motorsports, he initially drove Jeff Gordon’s No. 24. But in 2017, HMS stunned the garage by announcing that Elliott would switch to the No. 9 in 2018, a number deeply tied to his family’s heritage.

Back then also, Elliott had credited Dale Earnhardt Jr. for making the switch possible. “I owe a lot of it to Dale Jr. He was a big advocate of this happening.”

He admitted he had more conversations with Dale Jr. about it than with anyone else, and it was most likely Junior who persuaded Rick Hendrick to green-light the change.

Elliott recently revisited the story on BobbyCast, explaining how Dale Jr. urged him to speak up before the window closed. “It was actually Dale Jr. (who) really deserves a credit for the number switch from my perspective because… he knew I wanted to do it, but I never really said.

“He’s like, ‘Hey! You need to speak up about this right now because you’re probably not going to have another opportunity to do it.’ He knew there was some change coming (in 2018).

“So, thanks to his nudging, I reached out to the boss and was like, ‘Hey, what do you think about doing this, or can we do this? Is this even possible?'”

That request reached Richard Petty, who graciously stepped aside. As per Elliott, the ‘King’ essentially said, “You can have it. We’re not using it, it’s totally yours. You have family ties to this number, and it’d be really cool for you guys to take it if that’s what you want to do.”

Since driving the No. 9 to the Elliott name, Chase has tallied 20 Cup wins, including his first NASCAR Cup career win, and won the 2020 championship.