Chase Elliott isn’t the name that comes up when you hear about Hendrick Motorsports drivers competing in non-NASCAR races. Kyle Larson has been upfront about his racing adventures apart from NASCAR and makes the most of it during the off-season. Alex Bowman has also tried his hand to follow in Larson’s footsteps, but Elliott has remained within the confines of NASCAR.
That wasn’t always the case before Chase Elliott joined HMS to compete in NASCAR. Late-model stock car racing put Elliott on the map as he started to conquer one of the historic short tracks across the United States, the Snowball Derby being one of them. However, he won’t be featuring at the Five Flags Speedway this week in the 57th running of the historic race. There’s no restriction from team owner Rick Hendrick, but Elliott’s past adventures outside of NASCAR haven’t fared well for him.
Chase Elliott doesn’t want to risk a repeat of the 2023 NASCAR season
Just two weeks after the Cup Series season started, the HMS driver broke his leg while snowboarding ahead of the Las Vegas Race. This incident sparked a debate about activities drivers do outside of racing. In Elliott’s case, he was sidelined for six races and missed a crucial chunk of regular season races. He was certainly up against the odds to make the playoffs after missing important races, and the snowboarding incident did come to bite him.
For the first time in his career, Elliott failed to qualify for the playoffs. To make matters worse, he also served a one-race ban after retaliating against Denny Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600 race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It is fair to say that the 2023 season is perhaps the lowest Elliott has ever been, and it could’ve been avoided without his freak mid-season injury scare. So you see, this is one of the important reasons why the 2-time Snowball Derby winner isn’t expected to turn up at the Five Flags Speedway this week.
Things certainly were different before Chase Elliott made his NASCAR debut with HMS in 2016. Elliott might not be competing at the Snowball Derby but still holds a significant record to his name. Back in 2011, he scored his first Snowball Derby win, and he became the youngest driver to be able to achieve this feat. Just before his full-time switch to the Cup Series, he won the historic short-track race again in 2015.
The list of NASCAR drivers winning the Snowball Derby isn’t extensive, which makes this race a popular event among both veteran and young drivers. Well, more NASCAR drivers could join Chase Elliott as history makers, as a good number of them will be competing in the 57th annual Snowball Derby. But, as far as prediction goes, it’s tough to single out a driver who is an outright favorite to take home the Tom Dawson Trophy.
