{"id":22112,"date":"2015-12-11T14:21:36","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T22:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=22112"},"modified":"2015-12-13T18:09:47","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T02:09:47","slug":"chase-elliott-to-replace-jeff-gordon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/chase-elliott-to-replace-jeff-gordon\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Chase Elliot Develop at His Own Pace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"HAMPTON,<\/a>
HAMPTON, GA – OCTOBER 29: Chase Elliott, driver of the #25 Napa Auto Parts Chevrolet, sits in his car during testing for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway on October 29, 2015 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Daniel Shirey\/NASCAR via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the age of 20, there\u2019s a lot of anticipation \u2013 and expectations \u2013 riding on Chase Elliott\u2019s shoulders. Given his success already (won the 2014 Xfinity Series championship), not to mention his famous genes (son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott) and being the hand-picked choice to replace Jeff Gordon in the No. 24 Chevrolet, it\u2019s likely success in the Sprint Cup Series will come.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s not put Elliott out there too far, too soon. Let\u2019s not put overly high expectations upon him too quickly. Let\u2019s not anoint him the 2016 Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year when he\u2019ll have at least three other tough contenders. Most importantly, let\u2019s not claim Elliott will win the 2016 Sprint Cup championship right out of the box.<\/p>\n

Frankly, it\u2019s likely Elliott will have at least some struggles in his rookie season in NASCAR\u2019s premier series. That\u2019s normal and expected of young drivers, even those with the immense talent and natural skills behind the wheel that Elliott possesses. There\u2019ll be plenty of pressure placed upon him to prove himself against NASCAR\u2019s elite drivers. There will be additional pressure placed upon him because he\u2019ll be driving for Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR\u2019s most successful team in Sprint Cup history (11 championships, 240 race wins).<\/p>\n

There\u2019ll be even more pressure placed upon him to essentially hold his own with teammates such as six-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, as well as NASCAR\u2019s Most Popular Driver 13 years running (Dale Earnhardt Jr.), and also Kasey Kahne. There\u2019ll also be pressure placed upon Elliott simply because he\u2019s replacing one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history. Those are massive shoes to fill for anybody, no matter if your last name is Elliott or Smith or Jones or Doe.<\/p>\n

\"MARTINSVILLE,<\/a>
MARTINSVILLE, VA – MARCH 27: NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott (left) congratulates his son Chase Elliott, driver of the #25 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet, after qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway on March 27, 2015 in Martinsville, Virginia. This will mark Chase Elliott’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start. (Photo by Rainier Ehrhardt\/NASCAR via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve been around NASCAR racing for more than 20 years; I\u2019ve been around motorsports as a whole for nearly 40 years. \u00a0I can honestly say that during that time, and across all forms of motorsports, I can\u2019t think of another driver who has shown me the maturity, talent and ability to contain himself as much as Elliott.<\/p>\n

One of my friends remarked to me that Elliott is like a 40-year-old multi-champion trapped in the body of a young man who still isn\u2019t legally able to drink alcohol. In a way, Elliott is somewhat of an old soul. He races with an old school style very reminiscent of his legendary father Bill, as well as Gordon and perhaps Tony Stewart in his prime.<\/p>\n

Sure, the younger Elliott wasn\u2019t even born when Bill won his lone Sprint Cup championship in 1988, and only four of his father\u2019s 44 career wins came after Chase came into the world in 1995. But Chase couldn\u2019t have had a better role model \u2013 and even more so, a better teacher \u2013 than Awesome Bill from Dawsonville.<\/p>\n

Yet, Bill also experienced struggles in his career, particularly in the waning years of a tenure that lasted all or part of 37 seasons and 828 Sprint Cup starts. Just look at his record from 2004 through his final race in 2012: zero wins, zero top-fives and just one top-10 finish in his last 97 Cup starts. Chase will naturally lean upon his father to help him with all the good that is to come, but he\u2019ll also have to lean on dear old dad to help get him through the times that discouraging, frustrating and intimidating.<\/p>\n

Jimmie Johnson once said you have to learn how to lose before you can win, and that analysis fits Chase Elliott perfectly. Sure, in a perfect world, he\u2019ll win the season-opening Daytona 500 and go on to win 10 races and ultimately the 2016 Sprint Cup championship.In reality, though, he\u2019ll likely get caught up in one of Daytona\u2019s infamous wrecks and likely finish 30th or lower. He\u2019ll likely not reach Victory Lane for at least a year or two, and probably won\u2019t even make the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs also for at least a year or two.<\/p>\n

One thing I\u2019ve keenly noticed about Elliott since he burst upon the Xfinity Series scene is his knack to soak up information like a sponge. He\u2019s like a computer processor: information is input into him and he stores it until it\u2019s ready to be used or is applicable to a situation he\u2019s facing.But at the same time, he may want to keep that sponge handy for other purposes: like cleaning up some of the inevitable messes and even tears that may flow as he goes through growing pains and learning curves.<\/p>\n

Still, all-in-all, Elliott will indeed become a big star and champion some day. Let\u2019s just hope he doesn\u2019t try to do it too quickly, or that people push their sometimes unrealistic expectations upon him before he\u2019s ready.Sure, there\u2019s plenty of buzz and excitement and anticipation about what Elliott will do in the Sprint Cup Series. That\u2019s natural.But don\u2019t push him or force the issue. Let him develop and evolve at his own rate and pace, and he\u2019ll be just fine in due time.<\/p>\n

Follow me on Twitter @JerryBonkowski.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He\u2019s projected as NASCAR\u2019s next big thing, potentially becoming the face of the sport if his success level equals his talent level.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":22114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3424],"tags":[3749,3831,1190,127],"class_list":["post-22112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-chase-elliot","tag-chase-elliott-to-replace-jeff-gordon","tag-jeff-gordon","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/unnamed1-e1449871418397.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-5KE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22112"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22120,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22112\/revisions\/22120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}