NASCAR Cup Series driver Chase Elliott underwent surgery on Friday night to repair a fractured tibia in his left leg, which was an injury he sustained while snowboarding in Colorado earlier in the day.
Though the three-hour surgery was successful, there is no timeline for Elliott’s return to the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 he drives full time for Hendrick Motorsports.
Jeff Andrews, the team’s president and general manager, shared more details regarding Elliott’s recovery on Saturday morning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“We would expect this to obviously be several weeks but beyond that, I don’t have a timeline to offer for you. We will work with Chase and his doctors in the future to help determine that,” Andrews said.
Hendrick Motorsports has applied for a waiver for Elliott to remain eligible for the playoffs.
“We are going to race a long time together with Chase Elliott and we are going to win a lot more races together. Certainly this is a little bit of a setback and Chase is very disappointed,” Andrews added. “We’ll have a seat ready for him when he is healthy and ready to get back in a race car.”
Previous to injury, Elliott was 14th in the championship standings following his 35th-place result at the Daytona 500 and runner-up finish at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., last Sunday.
While the 2020 Cup Series champion takes time to heal from his injury, Xfinity Series regular Josh Berry will fill in for Elliott behind the wheel of the No. 9 Chevrolet. Berry drives full time for JR Motorsports, a Hendrick Motorsports affiliate, in the Xfinity Series.