(MILLVILLE, N.J. - June 30, 2012) - Chase Elliott always has been a fan of road courses, and this weekend, the 16-year-old will get his first chance to compete on one in a stock car.
Elliott will make his third ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards start when he lines up his No. 9 Aaron's Dream Machine/Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet on Sunday at New Jersey Motorsports Park's Thunderbolt Raceway. Practice starts today at 12:20 p.m.
"I've always liked road courses and have done a little of it in the past, but not in a stock car," Elliott said. "I'm really excited about it, though. It's something I don't get to do very often, and I really enjoy road racing."
Elliott recently spent time working on his road course skills during a test at Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, S.C. with veteran crew chief Lance McGrew and his Aaron's Dream Machine/Hendrickcars.com team.
"Our test went really well," McGrew said. "Chase
has never driven a stock car on a road course before, so our main goal at Kershaw was to get him comfortable with shifting and just make a lot of laps. Looking toward the ARCA event at New Jersey Motorsports Park this weekend, our priority is to make sure the No. 9 Chevrolet is mechanically sound and that Chase finishes every lap."
To read more about Elliott's outlook for his first stock car road course event, as well as the influence of his father Bill Elliott, click here to read more from a team press release in the Team News section of ARCARacing.com at ARCA Nation.
To read ARCARacing.com's earlier feature on Chase Elliott, click here.
ARCA Racing Series teams will practice twice today at New Jersey Motorsports Park's Thunderbolt Raceway. Practices are scheduled from 12:20-1:50 p.m. and 2:40 to 3:40, with Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell following at 5:30.
The 67-lap, 150-mile race - the fifth for ARCA on the New Jersey course - will start at 1 p.m. Sunday, with live timing and scoring and live audio coverage presented by the ARCA Racing Network available at ARCARacing.com. The ARCA event is one of several races scheduled over New Jersey's All-American Race Weekend presented by Global Barter Corporation.
