NASCAR hosts largest sporting event crowd since pandemic
Chase Elliott won and for the first time all year, he did so in front of fans in the grandstands. 20,000 fans were socially distanced throughout and often chanted “USA! USA!” and celebrated NASCAR’s most popular driver.
To add to the overall joy of the victory, Chase joined his father Bill Elliott, as the second father/son tandem to win the race, Dale Earnheardt and Dale Earnheardt Junior were the first. If that wasn’t enough, Chase Elliott took home a cool 1 million dollars for the win.
“Tonight felt like an event again, and I felt like we’ve been missing that piece for a couple of months,” said Elliott, who won races at Charlotte in the Cup Series with no fans. “It felt good to have NASCAR back. NASCAR is about the fans. I felt like the vibe was back.”
In Elliott’s Georgia hometown, the pool room marks every win by the father or son by blaring its horn, no matter the time of day or night.
“I hope someone got a good video of it for me,” Elliott said. “That’s such a special tradition.”
The Hendrick Motorsports driver — sure celebrated with the sword-like trophy — and pretended swung it in celebration.
“What a special race to win. It’s extremely special to join Dad in winning this race,” Elliott said. “To me, this is one of the prestigious events on the schedule. There’s a lot of hype around it. It means a lot to me …. you are racing against the very best. To beat the best is always special.”
This is Chase Elliott’s fifth season on the cup series.
