Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Elliott Hopes To Make New Brickyard Reminiscences on Road Course

July 23, 2021 | By Curt Cavin

Reigning NASCAR Cup Series winner Chase Elliott does not try to remember a whole lot about currently being at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Aug. 4, 2002. He was 6 years outdated, however not totally invested in what his father was undertaking that day as a veteran Brickyard 400 driver.

But memories are recollections, and the second-technology stock auto driver absolutely has them. He has images, way too, and these from that IMS race are amid his favorites of his father’s Hall of Fame occupation.

“That was almost certainly just one of his most important wins and one of the couple of I was all around for,” Elliott claimed. “Not that I keep in mind all the things about it simply because I was truly tiny, but to have those people images and share some of those people times and to have that to appear back again on is truly amazing.”

Elliott’s father recorded 44 Cup Sequence victories and the 1988 time championship, but the 2002 Brickyard 400 was a single of only four for which this Hendrick Motorsports driver was alive. The other folks ended up at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2001, at Pocono Raceway in 2002 and at North Carolina Motor Speedway in 2003. IMS is the just one Chase most remembers.

That Brickyard win was the 43rd of Bill Elliott’s profession. His son wore a pink, junior-sized crew shirt and seemed effectively-versed in extending his ideal index finger as large in the air as doable in victory lane when standing with his parents. Father and son even posed with the trophy on Indy’s legendary Property of Bricks.

Bill Elliott led 93 laps that working day, getting the direct from Rusty Wallace with 12 laps to go. His son under no circumstances experienced this sort of a minute on the Brickyard’s oval, ending only as large as ninth as soon as in 6 commences.

“We’ve generally (ran badly) there – it is a single of those people locations that I wanted to correct,” the younger Elliott said. “Hopefully it goes improved this calendar year, and we can increase.”

If advancement arrives, it will be on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile IMS street study course, which will host the Cup Collection for the initially time Sunday, Aug. 15 with the inaugural Verizon 200 at the Brickyard. The race is part of a tripleheader weekend showcasing the NTT INDYCAR SERIES’ Huge Device Spiked Coolers Grand Prix and NASCAR’s Xfinity Series’ Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard, with these two races Saturday, Aug. 14.

Elliott should be a person of the favorites to get the Cup race based mostly on earlier performances. Of his 13 series wins, 7 have appear on this kind of circuits: two each and every at Watkins Glen Worldwide and the Charlotte Motor Speedway roval, a person at the Daytona Worldwide Speedway street system, at Circuit of The Americas and previous weekend at Highway The usa. For the next year, the Charlotte street course will be part of the championship’s Spherical of 12, this year on Oct. 10.

Elliott also won a Truck Series race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in 2013.

Not only do highway courses accommodate him, he insists turning still left and suitable on the same lap suits Cup Sequence automobiles.

“I’m not positive the big keep track of (at Indy) was the biggest race for us, but I will be striving to study (the highway course) and deal with that challenge. I think it will be a greater celebration.”

If all goes nicely, probably the Elliotts can once more rejoice in victory lane and on the Yard of Bricks.