OCALA, Fla. — Chase Elliott’s dirt-track education hit high gear during the 35th Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals last month. It will continue as the USAC National Midget Series opens its season this weekend at Bubba Raceway Park.
Elliott, the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion, will head to Florida one week early and compete for CB Industries during the Feb. 5-6 Winter Dirt Games at the three-eighths-mile Florida dirt track.
It will mark Elliott’s USAC national midget debut and only his fifth and sixth competitive appearances behind the wheel of a dirt midget.
The 25-year-old from Dawsonville, Ga., will be a teammate to defending USAC National Midget Series champion Chris Windom, giving team owner Chad Boat a two-pronged attack to open the outdoor season.
“Adding Chase, I think, is definitely a huge complement to our program and everything that we’ve got going on,” Boat noted. “I think it works out well that, as an organization, we’re going to be hitting a lot of different races this year to where it allows some opportunity for him to run if it makes sense with his schedule.
“Obviously, he’s very busy on the NASCAR side, but we’re excited to get him some more laps and it’s pretty cool that he’s this into building on his Chili Bowl run and improving and getting more seat time,” Boat continued. “It’s been something we’ve worked on for a little while, but it just kind of fell into place these last couple of weeks.”
Elliott’s No. 84 entry will carry sponsorship from NAPA Auto Parts, the primary supporter of his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series, as well as longtime CB Industries backers Pristine Auction and K&C Drywall.
Elliott began his foray into dirt midget racing with a pair of top-four finishes at North Carolina’s Millbridge Speedway in December, then narrowly missed his preliminary-night feature at the Chili Bowl in January before concluding the Super Bowl of Midget Racing with an F Main finish in the Saturday finale.
However, Boat’s connection with Elliott runs deeper than just a love of dirt racing, as the duo competed against one another in the former NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (now the ARCA Menards Series East) in 2011-’12.
Their friendship renewed when Elliott stepped into midget competition and Boat was eager to lend a hand in finding a way for Elliott to get more time behind the wheel of a midget.
“I’ve been talking to Chase ever since he started doing a little bit of midget stuff,” Boat explained. “After Chili Bowl, he was looking to do a little bit more. … I think it just made sense with us being down here close to what he’s doing for his other work.
“It just made sense for him that it would be a good place for him to come over and do it.”
While Boat admits he hasn’t kept an eagle eye on Elliott’s on-track exploits so far in midget racing, he believes that Elliott has been a quick study and will continue to do so in his equipment.
“It’s hard for me to grade him, just because I haven’t really paid super close attention to him,” Boat said. “I mean, I’ve watched him some, but I haven’t watched him with that intent eye, mainly just because I’ve been worrying about my own cars. But he’s obviously a skilled enough driver to do this and he has enough people in his corner that he’ll be able to figure out what he needs. I think the biggest thing is just continuing to get him more comfortable in the car and helping him adjust once he gets comfortable.
“Once he’s able to start running as hard as he to run it and learns where that line for success is, I think it’ll kind of fall in place for him and he’ll be just fine.”
Boat noted that there isn’t an official schedule for Elliott with his team; no additional races are confirmed for the pairing beyond this weekend’s two nights at Bubba Raceway Park.
But Boat did tip that the goal of Elliott’s program with CB Industries — whatever that might look like through the year — is to prepare the pavement ace for a return to the Chili Bowl next January.
“Everything he’s doing now (on dirt) … it’s all building towards the Chili Bowl in 2022,” Boat said. “He wants to give that an absolute max effort, essentially, with what he can do time-wise. He knows that the more laps he gets, the better prepared he’s going to be for that when it comes back around.”
Elliott’s outing with Boat will wrap up a diverse offseason during which he’s raced an asphalt super late model during the Snowball Derby and a Cadillac DPi sports car at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in addition to his dirt midget endeavors.
Following his weekend at Bubba Raceway Park, Elliott will turn his attention to his NASCAR Cup Series duties at Daytona Int’l Speedway, headlined by the non-points Busch Clash on Feb. 9 and the 63rd running of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 14.