Rick Hendrick believes he's found gem in Chase Elliott

dpkimmel2001

dpkimmel2001

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The Second Coming? Maybe.

Rick Hendrick's last foray into developing young talent resulted in 52 rebuilt race car frames and one solemn promise.

The most powerful team owner in NASCAR politely would skip sinking his millions into grooming the stock-car stars of the future.

That was before he met Chase Elliott – whom he signed to Hendrick Motorsports' first developmental deal in six years.

"I'd said I wasn't going to do it anymore, but I was so impressed with Chase," Hendrick told USA TODAY Sports. "It's almost like you get a registered Doberman with such a good pedigree, you know he could be a champion. I just felt he was somebody I was willing to invest in and take a chance with because I felt as strongly about him as the way I felt about Jeff (Gordon) and Jimmie (Johnson)."
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Jeff Gordon & Jimmie Johnson? Whew! A glowing comparison by Rick on the youngest winner in ARCA. :D


Read the rest here.
 
I hope Rick doesn't hurt the kid digging it out.

Chase looks like the real deal, but so do a lot of others coming up. Cup will be real exciting when Blaney, Elliott, Beuscher, the Dillons, Stenhouse and Larson are all racing for chase spots. I hope it's the beginning of the end for all the gemtleman crap going around lately.
 
I wonder how Kasey and Jr feel about Rick's statement.
 
I thought his Truck performance at Dover where he came back from two pit road penalties to finish 4th was phenomenal. He has talent, for sure. I hope and think Rick is smart enough not to rush him up through the ranks like JGR did with Logano.
 
I couldn't believe he shot himself in the foot twice in the truck race. I wasn't impressed with his 4th place finish considering what he did to himself. But he is young and learning. Coming from last to first and winning, he had a little help. Eric Jones's pit ran him out of gas and despite that Jones caught up and was running him down at the finish. Don't know if Chase was pedaling it or not though. Hendrick built a brand new car for him from the ground up using all the technology they had learned from running cup cars, so he had the best piece in the show IMO. He has a great opportunity that's for sure and he seems like a really good kid.
 
I like Chase , he's a great kid with a great future . I don't see how we can rate these kids for a year or two. I'd like to see them all get rides and be sucessful , but there just aren't enough spaces for them all. The current crop of drivers are racing into their fifties and there is no way the sport can get any young kids in.
 
StandOnIt said:
I couldn't believe he shot himself in the foot twice in the truck race. I wasn't impressed with his 4th place finish considering what he did to himself. But he is young and learning.
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Obviously earning two speeding penalties isn't good, but going from 19th to 1st on one run and then 17th to 4th sure is.
 
StandOnIt said:
I couldn't believe he shot himself in the foot twice in the truck race. I wasn't impressed with his 4th place finish considering what he did to himself. But he is young and learning. Coming from last to first and winning, he had a little help. Eric Jones's pit ran him out of gas and despite that Jones caught up and was running him down at the finish. Don't know if Chase was pedaling it or not though. Hendrick built a brand new car for him from the ground up using all the technology they had learned from running cup cars, so he had the best piece in the show IMO. He has a great opportunity that's for sure and he seems like a really good kid.
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Let's derail the hype train. There are a great many issues with Chase Elliott. More disqualifications than any other driver in Super Late Model history. Got banned for life from PASS. Sure, he's also won a lot but he's always had cars that were vastly superior to everyone else. Won an ARCA race with a field of three competitive cars and won solely because he had a Sprint Cup pit crew and a brand new car built by a Sprint Cup powerhouse. Goes to K&N where he still has a vastly superior car against drivers who he's supposedly much better than and nobody even notices he's in the field. His ONE K&N win came at a horsepower track.

Chase Elliott will end up in Sprint Cup (he's basically been guaranteed a Cup ride five years or less down the road) and he might be successful if guys like Larson, Supershoe, Bubba, Michael Self, Jones and Gaulding don't make it to Cup because they don't get a chance to stand out in the Kyle Busch Series.
 
Some of the over forty crowd are ..Jeff Burton , Tony Stewart , Jeff Gordon , Matt Kenseth , Greg Biffle , of course Mark Martin and Bobby Labonte and some others like Reutimann , Riggs ,and Blaney . There are a few big names closing in on 40 like Montoya , Johnson, Harvick , Earnhardt , Ambrose and McMurray . How many will race to age 50 ? Will sponsor commitments keep them racing longer than they should ? Will any of them retire while on top of their game ? Oddly enough , of all of them , I could see Jimmy hanging it up early .
 
It is too early to tell, he is still developmental and assumptions at this point, imo.
Hendrix is just doing good buisness with the hype. He is cash a cow, and signed up, so build all the prestige value possibile, it only pads more future sponsorship, and is good for the company.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Chase Elliott will end up in Sprint Cup (he's basically been guaranteed a Cup ride five years or less down the road) and he might be successful if guys like Larson, Supershoe, Bubba, Michael Self, Jones and Gaulding don't make it to Cup because they don't get a chance to stand out in the Kyle Busch Series.
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Unless Rick changes his mind, like he did with Brad.
 
Nice to see Andy back . What a ray of sunshine . Bullying a young kid as usual. Good for you Andy , derail that hype train . It's what you're good at .
 
FenderBumper said:
Unless Rick changes his mind, like he did with Brad.
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That's true. I bet Hendrick regrets, every single day, letting Brad and Kyle get away.

Like most race teams, Hendrick's actually had more failures than successes with driver development. I remember hearing worlds of praise for Blake Feese and Landon Cassill.

Come to think of it, Keselowski's the only Hendrick driver development success story I can think of. Kyle Busch, sure, but it was mostly Roush Racing that groomed him - by the time he went to Hendrick driver development, he already had NASCAR starts. Jimmie Johnson was never on a Hendrick driver development program.
 
I am an obvious Chase Elliott fan. I dont want to see him rushed along too much. These young drivers need to tear up some equipment to find the edge. Still, I like everything I see so far out of this young man and there are a lot of really good young drivers these days. A lot of these young guys make some of the truck veterans look stupid sometimes. I know Chase has already done a little cup car testing for Hendrick so they are utilizing him while letting him get some seat time at the same time.

By the way, Venturini and Erik Jones are driving JGR/KBM cars. Hardly slugs and we know Toyo in not afraid to spend money at this level like in the truck series.
 
While browsing the net today I came across this. It couldn't be a picture of a young Andy, could it? ;)

Andy.jpg
 
after jr's comment on chase's win.......that may be dev conduit thru lower series ?
 
It would be interesting to see Elliott in a mid tier ride like KBM -- until then it's really hard to judge how good he is. That said, I think he will be one of the drivers that makes it to cup and does good within 5 or so years like Larson, Blaney, and Buescher(s).
 
I have to admit that If I were to rate the best young drivers under 21, with no cup or nws wins, young Elliott wouldnt make my present top 5.

But that doesnt mean anything, Mr Hendrix apparently would, so he is were he needs to to be..
There is no ABC path, or who's to say an 18 year old current inferior to his peers driver, will not eventually be a 21 or 25 y/o superior to his peers driver.

No disrespect for him but he is on the verge of being young man, not there yet. At the moment it is all speculation and hope, to write him off now, or crown him as the next best thing is premature (silly).
 
As hard as it is for us to judge how good he is at that age , it seems awful easy for one idiot to write him off .
 
So that's how you put someone on ignore on Racing-Forums.com - you ignore them by responding to every post and trying to pick a fight. Funny part is, those two tossers will be the first two plonkers to complain to TRL.

I don't engage in pissfests so rock on mates.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
So that's how you put someone on ignore on Racing-Forums.com - you ignore them by responding to every post and trying to pick a fight. Funny part is, those two tossers will be the first two plonkers to complain to TRL.

I don't engage in pissfests so rock on mates.
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AndyMarquisLive said:
So that's how you put someone on ignore on Racing-Forums.com - you ignore them by responding to every post and trying to pick a fight. Funny part is, those two tossers will be the first two plonkers to complain to TRL.

I don't engage in pissfests so rock on mates.
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Andy, Andy, Andy...are you at it again?
 
FenderBumper said:
Unless Rick changes his mind, like he did with Brad.
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Brad was never really a Hendrick driver, he didn't come up through the ranks like they are doing with Chase, he was just friends with Junyer. This was Rick going to Mark, "hey could you step out for I can give Brad a cup ride", "nah", "oh ok." Plus I think Brad wanted to eventually be top dog, couldn't be that at Hendrick. You knew Roger and Kurt, had a strain relationship already, was the perfect fit for Kez.
 
JimmieGordon2448 said:
Brad was never really a Hendrick driver, he didn't come up through the ranks like they are doing with Chase, he was just friends with Junyer. This was Rick going to Mark, "hey could you step out for I can give Brad a cup ride", "nah", "oh ok." Plus I think Brad wanted to eventually be top dog, couldn't be that at Hendrick. You knew Roger and Kurt, had a strain relationship already, was the perfect fit for Kez.
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That's not what happened. Brad was in 9 cup races for HMS as a development driver, which allowed HMS to have 5 cars on the track. Then Rick set him up to race cup with Phoenix racing, where he had even better results. Mark Martin was supposed to be out of the #5 in 2011 with Brad taking over. Instead, Rick tried to get MM to extend his contract by 2 years, but Mark only wanted to do 1 more year. Meanwhile, Rick knew Brad was sitting on an offer Roger made in early 2009. Look at Brads numbers in 2009 and you'll understand why Roger made the offer. After Mark re-signed (and before the extension was announced), Brad and Roger came to an agreement which included starting up the #22 NW team. That new team was the key to signing Paul Wolfe. I think Rick couldn't find a sponsor for Brad, and Roger was willing to fund the cup car himself. It was a smart by Brad, because once Kasey Kahne became available, he would have been pushed out anyway.

Brad was driving for JRM, which had a strong association with HMS, including engineering support. When Chase comes up, he'll be driving for JRM in NW before he gets to cup. Brad was indeed an HMS development driver.
 
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