Elliott makes return at Martinsville after breaking leg
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MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Chase Elliott makes his return to racing this weekend at Martinsville Speedway with one thing on his mind: winning.
And that approach won’t change the rest of the season.
Elliott has missed the last six Cup Series races after breaking his leg during a freak snowboarding accident in Colorado, leaving him so far behind in the points race that his only realistic shot of making the NASCAR playoffs is winning a race.
“We are in a position where we are going to have to win, or at least that is how I have been looking at it,” Elliott said. “You miss a few weeks, and you’re pretty much going to have to win.”
Elliott has been granted a waiver allowing him to compete for the Cup championship even though his injury did not occur on the track.
Elliott said while the setup of his No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro and how he drives won’t change, the overall strategy of how his team approaches Sunday’s 400-lap race will be different.
“We see guys shorten stages to try to get the win or whatever, going for points. Obviously, we don’t need to go for points,” Elliott said. “So anytime you have decisions to make, the decision is going to be very easy: You play the long game and try to win the event.”
Elliott doesn’t anticipate any modifications to the inside of the racecar to accommodate his surgically repaired leg. For the most part, it should be racing as usual.
“The leg is kind of tightly packed in there between the seat, the leg board and the knee-knocker. All of those have your left left pretty tight,” said Elliott, who won the 2020 fall race in Martinsville. “I feel like things are already the way I want them.”
The last time NASCAR made a pit stop at Martinsville in October, Ross Chastain pulled off an impressive video game move when he intentionally rode the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap, slingshotting his No. 1 Chevrolet past Denny Hamlin at the finish line to secure a spot in NASCAR’s “final four.”
While NASCAR since has banned the wall-racing move, the eighth-generation watermelon farmer was invited to return to the track to help remove the “Martinsv” section of the wall that will be preserved as part of history.
“It was cool to take the afternoon and moment to physically take that piece of the wall out and preserve it,” Chastain said. “It’s amazing to think about how many great drivers have raced at Martinsville in the past and how many great races have happened at the track. I’m proud to be a piece of something special.”
Cup series points leader Christopher Bell is coming off a huge win last week at Bristol, his fifth career victory in 116 career starts. That makes him the second fastest to reach five wins among active drivers behind Brad Keselowski, who had eight wins in his first 116 races.
“It’s shocking to me,” said Bell, who won the fall race last year at Martinsville. “I, obviously, idolized a lot of the greats in the sport, and to see my name up there with them is really special. . … But you’re only as good as your last race, so we can’t go to Martinsville and drop the ball.”
Zane Smith will drive the No. 51 Ford this weekend for Rick Ware Racing after Cody Ware was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR on Monday after being charged with assault on a female and assault by strangulation inflicting serious injury.
This will be Smith’s fifth career Cup start. He has nine career wins, including two this season, in the Truck Series. It’s unclear if he will continue to drive the No. 51 beyond this week.
Last week, Matt Crafton filled in for Ware at Bristol.