One of the biggest things Elliott has preached he wants to build up on his racing résumé is diversity.
The Dawsonville, Ga., native doesn’t want to just be a top NASCAR driver, he wants to be a racer in the truest sense of the word, like those who have come before him such as Tony Stewart and Kyle Larson.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for this discipline and that’s why I’m here,” Elliott said. “I’ve respected it for a long time and wanted to give it a shot and I felt like this was the right opportunity.
“There’s not a lot that I don’t enjoy about dirt racing; it’s just something that’s a lot different than what I grew up doing and something that I have to learn if I want to be good at it, and getting laps and challenging myself in situations and races like the Chili Bowl is exactly how I’ll be able to do that.”
When it comes time to strap in on Saturday, Elliott will roll out in the middle of an F Main, where he’ll need to get to the top five if he wants to advance to an E Main.
That means he’ll truly get the full Chili Bowl experience. Is it likely he’d be able to roll all the way from the F to the E, and then through the D, C and B Mains to qualify for the Saturday A Main? Probably not and Elliott recognizes that.
His goals for Saturday are realistic. He wants to consume some “alphabet soup,” yes, but he’s not expecting to leave Tulsa with six full helpings come Saturday night.
“If I can just transfer out of the F and into the E, that would be a major plus for me,” Elliott said. “I need to log laps to learn, so hopefully we can do that. If we can go further than that, great.
“But if not, I’ll try to run all the laps I can and keep the car in one piece.”
This week’s Chili Bowl is the second leg of a winter racing schedule that has kept Elliott busy and challenged in its diversity.
He returned to his asphalt late model roots in December during the Snowball Derby at Florida’s Five Flags Speedway, and following the Chili Bowl he’ll race a Cadillac Daytona Prototype international for Action Express Racing at the Rolex 24 at Daytona Int’l Speedway to end the month of January.
But the good news for dirt racing fans around the world: Elliott wants to make a return to midget racing, and sooner rather than later, if he has it his way.
“I would love to come back and do more of this kind of racing, and not necessarily (just) at the Chili Bowl,” Elliott said. “The guys who are really good at this don’t just show up at the Chili Bowl. They race all year long and they get in these cars as much as they can.
“That’s what you need to do to be competitive and put in the right amount of effort. If I’m going to do this like I have aspirations to, I’m going to put the right amount of effort and learn the right way, because that’s racing.”
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