NASCAR's next big thing in no hurry to be NASCAR's next big thing

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It wasn't much more than a year ago, the week before Christmas, 2013, back in the Elliott family shop in Dawsonville, Ga.

NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott – Awesome Bill from Dawsonville – and his son Chase were working on a super late model that Chase had run in the Snowball Derby a couple weeks prior. They hoped to race it again in South Georgia in January.

That was the plan for 18-year-old Chase. Sponsorship delays and business realities had caused everything to stall. Both Elliotts figured Chase's 2014 would consist of a hodgepodge of races, many of them minor. They figured maybe half a dozen, at best, in the Nationwide Series, the second highest level of NASCAR.

It's not bad for a kid his age, but it's hard to gain any continuity or experience needed for long-term growth.

Then a call came in for Bill. He took it, returned to the shop and told Chase in his typical, matter-of-fact style, that NAPA had agreed to return to racing as a major sponsor and Chase would now run a full season in the Nationwide (now the Xfinity) Series.

Just like that.

"I think he passed out on the floor," Bill said. "Then I think I passed out on the floor."

What came next has never happened before in stock car history, a rocket ship of a rookie season that saw Chase win four races and record 16 top fives and 26 top 10s. There were only 31 races. He naturally won the championship, making him the youngest driver ever to win a title in any of NASCAR's three national series.

This offseason, he worked a deal to join the Sprint Cup Series full time in 2016, taking over no less than Jeff Gordon's car. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has hailed him as his favorite driver to watch. NASCAR is promoting him, starting with Xfinity Series season opening race here on Saturday afternoon.

He's beyond the next big thing.

"I really honestly didn't know what I was getting into," Chase said Friday morning at Daytona International Speedway. "When I got down here [a year ago] I remember Kasey Kahne walking up to me and saying, ‘Good luck.'

"I thought, ‘Man, I've run a handful of truck races and no superspeedway stuff, and we're getting ready to start off a full season of the second biggest touring series in NASCAR. What is going on?'

"And I still sometimes don't think, ‘What am I getting myself into.' "

As deals go, Chase Elliott has a good one going. Or a great one. He's young, talented, well spoken, polite and, well, projects a look that has drawn the attention of plenty of female fans. If he can keep racing like he's been racing, he's about to become the sport's next megastar.

"I'm just Chase's dad now," said Bill, who just during his Hall of Fame career was named the sport's most popular driver 16 times.

A year ago a kid who everyone was telling to wait his turn for another season, now has everyone looking past 2015 and trying to push him toward a year ahead, when he hits the big league's full time. Like trying to defend an Xfinity title while still being a teenager isn't enough.

That's what happens though when you're not just supposed to be the next Bill Elliott but the next Jeff Gordon. Now it's the kid telling the adults to pump the brakes a little.

"That's kind of the thing I've been preaching the last week," Chase said. "You guys need to step back and realize 2016 is a little less than an entire year away. Imagine how much happens in your life in a year.

"And it would not be fair for me to just look past this year. It wouldn't be fair to my guys. It wouldn't be fair to NAPA. It wouldn't be fair to anyone who makes any kind of effort for our race team. So I'm looking forward to this year."

Still, it all hangs out there. Chase in the Chase? Chase in the 24 car that changed the business dynamics of the sport over the last couple decades.

"I never would've seen myself in that car growing up," he said of Gordon's ride. "I watched Jeff racing for a long time; I never would've put myself there, especially when I was little and running around the shop with my dad and his racing."

Bill Elliott never doubted his son's ability, but the level of rookie success surprised him. Both Elliotts point to the third race last year, in Las Vegas, when he finished fifth despite unfamiliarity – "I didn't even know all the guys names on my team," Chase said.

By April he enjoyed a three-week run of first, first and second. No one has looked back since, and Bill has watched it all and seen an unusual gift in his son.

"The most impressive thing to me is he goes to these places where he's never been to and he knows what he needed," Bill said. "What he wanted out of the race track. What he needed to go fast in the racecar. I couldn't even do that [by the end of his career]. That's what blew me away."

How's he do it?

"I have no idea how," Bill said.

Chase said he's focused not on what he has done thus far but how much further he has to go. The early success is great and everything, but the goal is constant improvement and preparation for the move to Sprint Cup.

"I think the biggest thing is to never get too close-minded to where you are not open to taking new advice but at the same time you still have confidence enough in yourself to believe in what you're doing," Chase said.

The big league, the Daytona 500, the No. 24 car, the hype upon hype upon hype is still coming. It wasn't long ago he was working in a shop trying to keep his dream on schedule. Now is not the time to bask in anything.

The future, the 19 year old said, can wait. The kid has some races to try to win.

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