Chase Elliott wasn’t the only member of his family to take a checkered flag this weekend. His father, Bill Elliott — a.k.a. Awesome Bill from Dawsonville — also came out a winner.
And Bill missed Chase’s first win at Talladega Superspeedway — it was his fourth Cup Series victory overall and first in 2019 — in Sunday’s GEICO 500 because Saturday because he was racing in Georgia on Saturday. According to NBC Sports:
(T)he 1988 Cup champion took part in the Historic Sportscar Racing Mitty at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia.
Driving a 2006 No. 9 Dodge Cup car, Bill Elliott led every lap of the Stock Car Feature Race, which had 21 entries.
While Sunday marked Chase’s first win at the 2.66-mile track — the longest on NASCAR’s schedule — Bill Elliott won twice there in 1985 and 1987 on his way to 44 career Cup Series. And in 1987, Bill also set a NASCAR record with a top speed of 212.809 miles per hour at Talledega during qualifying.
Before the GEICO 500, Chase also shared this adorable video on Instagram of him and his dad from Talladega:
With Chase’s win Sunday in the 10th race of the season, the current No. 9 Chevrolet driver — because Bill Elliott also piloted the No. 9 car in his day — automatically qualified himself for the 16-driver, 10-race playoffs in the fall. Going into this weekend, Chase’s best finish at Talladega was third in the 2018 spring race.
Because Talladega is so relatively close to Dawsonville, Georgia, Chase said racing and winning there “feels like a home race.”
It was also the first time this year the driver in Victory Lane wasn’t from either Joe Gibbs Racing or Team Penske.
