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RIDGEWAY, Va. — Chase Elliott is back.
After a six-race absence, the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion will return to the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. The 27-year-old suffered a fractured tibia on March 3 while snowboarding. He underwent surgery at The Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado.
After rehab in both Colorado and at home in Dawsonville, Georgia, doctors cleared Elliott to race on Tuesday. He drove the Chevrolet Driver-in-the-Loop on Tuesday and Wednesday before deciding to make his return in Sunday’s NOCO 400. Elliott received a waiver from NASCAR to remain eligible for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Elliott was unable to bear weight on his tibia for several weeks during his recovery. He acknowledged that his return at Martinsville won’t be an easy task.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t going to be tough,” Elliott said in a teleconference on Thursday. “When you’re not using a muscle on your body, you lose a large percentage of your muscle mass in just the first couple of weeks, so all of those things are very normal. So yeah, it’s going to be tough, for sure. But I feel like I’m to a point where I’m comfortable to go do it; I think I can go do it.
“I’ve tried to stay working out as much as I can. Obviously, my legs were a big part of my routine and the things that I like to do to get my heart rate up and to work on those things. But yeah, there are other ways you can do it. The physical therapists that I’ve been working with have really helped guide me in a direction to try and stay on top of that stuff. I’m certainly not doing the things that I would normally do, but I think I’m in a position where I’m comfortable to go and I think I’ll be fine from that standpoint.”
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Elliott started the first two races of the season at Daytona International Speedway and Auto Club Speedway. He crashed and finished 38th at Daytona before finishing second at Auto Club Speedway.
Should Elliott need relief at Martinsville, Josh Berry, who subbed in five races for Elliott, will be on standby. Berry recorded a pair of top 10s, including a runner-up at Richmond Raceway in the No. 9 car while Jordan Taylor drove at Circuit of the Americas.
“Josh [Berry] is going to be up there to help us out if I get to a point where I don’t feel confident or don’t feel comfortable in running, then he can jump in and help,” Elliott said. “I don’t anticipate it being any different really from a comfort standpoint. Really the way that you sit in the car and kind of the way I like to sit – I guess as it revolves around my leg and my knee – all of that stuff is really stable and kind of tightly packed in there between the seat, the leg board, the knee knocker. All of those things really already have your left leg pretty tight anyways, so if I was going to change anything, I would really want that.”
Elliott is likely in a must-win situation to make the Playoffs. He’s 134 points outside of the top 16 in points and 232 points behind leader Christopher Bell. While mathematically still able to make the Playoffs on points, it would take a miracle run to qualify.
In 2015, suffered a compound leg fracture in the Xfinity Series opener at Daytona and missed 11 races before returning. He needed to win a race to make the Playoffs — and did by winning four of five races in a mid-summer stretch. Elliott faces a similar approach in 2023.
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“We’re in a position where we’re going to have to win,” Elliott said. “That’s at least how I’m looking at it and how I’ve been thinking about ever since this happened. I figured you miss a few weeks and you’re pretty much going to have to win. So yeah, that’s how I’m looking at it. I don’t think I really change my approach. Does that change how we call races from a strategic standpoint? Yeah, it probably does. But does it change how I drive or how I want the car set up for the weekend? No, we’re always out there trying to win events.
“I talked to Kyle Busch a good bit through that. We’ve texted back and forth some and just kind of quizzed him. His injury was much different than mine and way worse too … Just gathering information for myself, personally, just to understand kind of what he went through – that rehab process, how he felt when he was getting back in the car, what things he was looking for, what was comfortable and what wasn’t if anything. Just kind of talk through as much of it that I can.”
The next stretch of the season has historically suited Elliott well. The next four tracks — Martinsville, Talladega Superspeedway, Dover Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway — are all places that Elliott has won at in Cup.
Regardless, Elliott is confident in the team’s ability to get into victory lane before the Playoffs begin in September at Darlington Raceway.
“We’re going to work through it and continue to fight; make the most of not only this weekend, but the weeks to come,” Elliott said. “We’re going to have 17 races or so to get a win, so we’ve got plenty of time. Just have to get after it, execute at a high level and I think we’re very capable of doing that.”
