page_title: Chase Elliott
section_title: 2017
hierarchical_section_title: Chase Elliott / Racing career / NASCAR national series / Cup Series / 2017
caption_attribution_description: English: (Joseph Tregembo-Photographer)
context_page_description: William Clyde "Chase" Elliott II is an American professional stock car racing driver. He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Hendrick Motorsports and part-time in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet Silverado for GMS Racing. He is the only son of 1988 Winston Cup Series champion Bill Elliott.
  He won the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship, becoming the first rookie to win a national series championship in NASCAR. He became the youngest champion in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. He was the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year.
context_section_description: Elliott started the 2017 season by winning the pole for the Daytona 500 for the second year in a row. He followed it up with a win in the first Can-Am Duel race, becoming the first driver since Dale Earnhardt in 1996 to win both the Daytona 500 pole and a qualifying race and the third in NASCAR history (Davey Allison is the first after doing so in 1990). At Martinsville a little later in the year, he sneaked past Kyle Busch after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. bumped the No. 18 out of the way, allowing Elliott to steal the stage 2 victory. At Talladega on May 7, he was involved in a 16 car pileup that nearly saw him flip over, as his car got airborne. At Michigan in June, Elliott got his 3rd second-place finish in a row at the track.
  On October 1, Elliott had another chance at his first career win leading his first 138 laps at Dover and having a 4-second lead over Kyle Busch with 50 laps to go, but caught lap traffic and was stuck behind Ryan Newman, who has long held the reputation as one of the hardest guys to pass, allowing Busch to pass Elliott with two laps to go for the win while Elliott finished second. Jeff Gordon, the previous driver of the No. 24 car and a mentor to Elliott, confronted Newman after the race because he cost Elliott his first career win. At the fall race at Martinsville, Elliott was able to take the lead from Brad Keselowski with four to go, but his winning chances were ruined after being hit by Denny Hamlin from behind and spun out with three to go. Unhappy with Hamlin, he drove him to the outside wall after the race ended on the cooling lap. "My mom always said if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all," Elliott told NBCSN. "He's not even worth my time. … We had a good opportunity. I can’t control his decisions and whatever the hell that was. On to Texas." He later got an apology from Hamlin after the race via Twitter.
  At Phoenix, Elliott was in a must-win situation to advance to Miami. He did lead 34 laps of the race but once again, he had to settle for second as Matt Kenseth passed him with 10 laps to go, ending his championship hopes. However, he wound up finishing 5th in the final standings.
caption: Elliott battling Kyle Larson (No. 42) for the lead at Michigan
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