CONCORD, N.C. -- The NASCAR Cup Series is heading to Road America for the first points-paying race in its history, Chase Elliott is staying calm, cool and collected as he prepares for the 4.048-mile road course on Sunday.
Even though Hendrick Motorsports is on a hot streak and has won six of the last seven races, Elliott said no one is relaxing nor becoming complacent with the playoffs just two months away.
“I don’t think our prep has changed, but it’s a good thing, right? We would much rather be on this side of the fence than the other,” he explained. “I don’t really feel like any of us that are involved are any different people, or any better people or worse than we were last year or the year before.”
Elliott has won five of the last seven road course events the Cup Series has put on, making him the most winningest active road course driver. Of those road course wins, Elliott took the checkered flag from the inaugural events at the DAYTONA Road Course last season and Circuit of the Americas in May.
Even though Road America is a new track from a Cup standpoint, Elliott said the effort to gear up for a race should be the same. That old-school attitude has contributed to his success at road courses during his time in the Cup Series.
“You are either prepared for a race or you’re not, at the end of the day,” Elliott said. “You either have the knowledge and understand what you’re looking for or you don’t. I haven’t really changed that approach since my rookie year and I feel like when things are going good and we are clicking and things are working well we can perform at a high level. I don’t see any need in us changing what we do too much.”
Even though this will be the first Road America experience for Elliott in the Cup Series, he’s taken on the Wisconsin track before. When he was with the Xfinity Series, Elliott raced to two fourth-place finishes at the 14-turn track in 2014 and 2015.
“I’ve raced up there a couple times with Xfinity and I always really enjoyed going there,” Elliott said. “It’s a cool racetrack and a lot of race fans up there, a lot of people who enjoyed having us. I’ve always felt very welcome, and I don’t anticipate this weekend being any different. I am looking forward to getting back up there.”
Tune in to see if Elliott can earn other road course victory on Sunday, July 4 at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.