Chase Elliott may be NASCAR's Most Popular Driver, but he isn’t someone who is often as vocal as some of his fellow competitors. And that is exactly why people sat up and took notice when Elliott made a somewhat emotional call to the fans and press. 

Elliott, who got his second win this season at Texas last weekend, spoke to the press and voluntarily made a special call to support his uncle during his press conference at Watkins Glen. 

Elliott, who comes from a rich racing legacy pioneered by his father, Bill Elliott, called for people to take notice of his uncle Ernie Elliott, who has been included in the list of Hall of Fame nominees for the Class of 2027. 

"I don’t talk about stuff like this a lot, but you don’t have to dig very far into the Elliott racing story to recognize one, how much of a family effort it was, how much of a team effort it was. And I don’t think you would find anybody in the group that would tell you the story has the same ending today, throughout the course of the 80s, even leading into my career, that looks the same without my Uncle Ernie."

The 2020 Cup Series champion added, "He means a lot to me personally. He’s meant a lot to my career. He was building engines for our race cars, racing super late model races, and all those things. So just very grateful for him.”

Chase Elliott also spoke about his uncle's impact on his own career and his father's. He believes that things would have been different without Ernie Elliott guiding him. 

The No. 9 driver for HMS said, "A lot of deserving names on the list that will get in and should get in. Whether it be this year or another year down the road. But certainly, I feel he is one of the very deserving names on the list and one that doesn’t get talked about enough for the credit he deserves.”

Ernie Elliott’s Impact on the Elliott Legacy

In 1987, Enrie Elliott built an engine that clocked the fastest time at Talladega to date. That year, Bill Elliot won his second race in Daytona.  But before that, in 1985, Ernie built an engine that propelled Bill to win three of the big four races in Daytona, Talladega, and Darlington. 

Those wins earned Bill the Cup title as well as his first million. The engine was so good that at Talladega, Bill lost two laps under green due to a broken oil line, but returned to the lead lap without a caution and went on to win the race ahead of Cale Yarborough.

Of Bill Elliott’s 44 race wins, 33 have come with his brother as his engine builder and crew chief. He won the Cup Series in 1988 with Ernie as his crew chief. The Elliott duo had a staggering run with the No. 9 Ford winning six races with 15 top-five and 22 top-10 finishes. 

Chase Elliott said that those legendary stories are still spoken about.

"I get to have a lot of really cool conversations with him on Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and Mondays, throughout the week about things he was doing to the '85 Winston Million engine or the '87 Daytona 500 engine that you guys will never hear. And I take those things for granted, but I think they would blow your mind."

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Yask Kotak