NASCAR throwback weekend wasn’t supposed to be a two-race deal for Chase Elliott, but he doesn’t mind that it’s suddenly turned into one.
Darlington Raceway is nicknamed ‘The Track Too Tough to Tame’ for a reason, and not every driver relishes 500 miles around the egg-shaped oval on Sunday, much less another 200 on Saturday. Chase Elliott is just fine with it, preparing to wheel the No. 23 GMS Racing Chevrolet in the NASCAR XFINITY Series race before hopping in his regular Cup Series ride for Hendrick Motorsports the next day.
Double duty is nothing new for Elliott, of course, and other top Cup Series drivers like Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski are also competing on Saturday. But the circumstances for him are different, as he was only asked to fill in for GMS this week after the team’s scheduled driver, Spencer Gallagher, was ruled out with a shoulder injury.
Elliott made five starts in the 23 earlier this season while Gallagher was suspended for running afoul of NASCAR’s substance abuse policy. As a result, he told FanSided by phone from Darlington that when the team asked him to return (for this weekend and the next race at Indianapolis) it wasn’t a difficult decision.
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“I’ve enjoyed working with those guys at GMS, so honestly that made my answer really easy,” Elliott said. “As long as I could get the okay from everyone at HMS, I was down. I’d love to do more of it, honestly. It’s a great group of guys and I love working with them.”
Because the XFINITY and Cup cars are different and he’ll be driving for a different team on Saturday, there’s not necessarily a lot that can be gained as far as specific setups for Sunday. Still, Elliott felt there was value simply in getting more laps around Darlington Raceway, where he’s made just five starts total in his NASCAR career.
“At a place like Darlington, where things kind of move around, I think you might be able to take some,” he said when asked about applying any lessons learned to the Southern 500. “More than anything, just getting more reps at a tough racetrack is nice. We only come here one time a year, so it’s been an entire calendar year since we’ve raced at this racetrack. A lot of places that we visit, we come through twice a year. This isn’t one of those, so it’s nice to get some extra reps.”
He’ll get plenty of those in the GMS Racing Chevy on Saturday afternoon in the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 from Darlington. Coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC, with the green flag expected at 3:45 p.m.