People often discuss NASCAR racing family legacies and think it would probably be easy for members of said families to enter racing and make a successful living out of it. Chase Elliott has a different side of the story to present. 

Appearing on the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast, the No.9 Hendrick Motorsport driver noted that his father, Bill Elliott, was strict and taught him early on that racing was a serious profession, not just fun and games. 

“He definitely instilled early that hey, look, if you're going to do this, like we're going to do it right, and this is going to be - it's not all fun and games. There's a time and a place for it. But I think I was probably on too much of the fun side early on, and that probably didn't sit well.

So he, in the right way definitely taught me that lesson early and really, ever since then, I can remember some specific conversations where, you know, it was brought up, and then from there it was like ‘hey I get it’ and I respected it, and respected him enough to, you know, want to try and do things the way that he wanted them done," He said on the podcast posted on Youtube.

While he mentioned receiving physical discipline (the belt) as a child, he also spoke of the dynamic shifting from strictly disciplinary to one built on mutual respect and trust. Chase recalled an incident at Bristol, where his father expressed his disagreement with a move Chase made through subtle comments rather than harsh criticism. 

“I could remember there was a race I was racing for the lead at Bristol and ended up crashing, which messed it up for a few of us there. But he just kind of looked at me on the ride home, and he was like, not a word other than ‘I don't think I would have done that.’ And that was it. It was just ‘I don't think I would have done that.’ I don't know.”

Chase concluded this segment on the same podcast, by stating that his father never pressured him to race. He emphasized that he had the option to pursue other paths, which makes him value his career and life choices even more today. 

Chase is not a fan of Talladega Nights

In the same interaction, the discussion also leaned towards the 2006 Will Ferrell-starrer, which has recently been subjected to a lot of bashing by Kyle Larson and a few other figures in NASCAR. 

“I just think that there is a time and place for that. And then there's also space in that to respect the craft of what we do. I kind of like to have a little bit of both, where I don't think Talladega Nights is a very good representation of the driver's viewpoint of what we do behind the wheel." He said.

When asked about his stance on the movie, Chase said that the film is a poor representation of a driver’s job in NASCAR. He clarified that while he enjoys having a good time, the movie does not truly capture the hard work and dedication of drivers and teams who are living that life.

He further added,"I think that's where, probably more than just me, it sounds like, just feel like, man, it's such a misrepresentation of our jobs and the work and the time that we put into our craft.”

What are your thoughts on this?

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Written by

Aaradhya Singh

Edited by

Kaamna Dwivedi