Confidence High for Chase Elliott Rolling into Bristol Thunder Valley

BRISTOL, Tenn. (March 12, 2014) – NAPA Racing driver Chase Elliott is coming off an impressive run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last weekend when he cashed in his first NASCAR Nationwide Series top-five finish. The 18-year-old Dawsonville, Ga., native ran in the top-10 most of the day with the Sprint Cup Series’ elite flanked around him. One such elite racer was Elliott’s team owner, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who finished just ahead of him in fourth. Afterwards Earnhardt Jr., raved about his young driver, saying, “He’s even better than he knows he is.”

The dazzling performance shown by Elliott came at the right time for the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS team, as now he goes to a short track which he knows all too well.

Last season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Bristol, Elliott started on the pole, led 63 laps and finished fifth. It was one of five top-five efforts in nine truck races last year, and opened the gate for a historic win the following week in Canada.

In 2012 in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East event at Thunder Valley – which Bristol is affectionately known as with its steep banking and tight corners – Elliott started 10^th and led 40 laps en route to a 10^th-place finish. Elliott’s first start at the half-mile track came on Sept. 11, 2010, in the X-1R Pro Cup Series race. On that day he scored a fifth-place finish.  Altogether Elliott’s average finish in three races at Bristol is 6.6.

It will be JR Motorsport’s 500^th start in the NNS Saturday, providing extra motivation for Elliott to bring his NAPA Chevy to victory lane, which is uniquely located on top of the infield care center.

Driver Quotes:

Chase Elliott – No. 9

“I’m really excited for Bristol this Saturday, It’s such a cool place to go race and it’s a place we go to twice a year. It’s going to be important to learn as much as we can to help build that notebook for the fall. The past two races, my NAPA AUTO PARTS team has been getting into a nice rhythm and we want to build on our fifth-place finish at Vegas this weekend in Bristol.”

TV Schedule (All times Eastern Standard Time):

Friday, March 14^th  

1:40 PM                      NNS Practice                                                                FOX Sports 1
3:00 PM                      NNS Final Practice                                                       FOX Sports 1 

Saturday, March 15^th  

10:10 AM                    NNS Qualifying                                                                      ESPN2
2:00 PM                      NNS Race                                                                                ESPN2