17-year-old Chase Elliott emulating famous father

The last time the Camping World Truck Series visited Iowa Speedway was in September, when 18-year-old Ryan Blaney became the youngest driver in history to win a NASCAR national event.

It may be a short-lived record.

Long viewed as one of the sport’s more prodigious talents after numerous wins in lower divisions, including a victory in the celebrated Snowball Derby, 2013 has seen 17-year-old Chase Elliott burst onto the national scene.

The son of 1988 Cup champion and longtime fan favorite Bill Elliott, Chase made his Truck Series debut in April at Martinsville Speedway. After qualifying eighth, the younger Elliott finished sixth. He followed his impressive debut with a fifth at Rockingham and a fourth at Dover and is off to the best three-race start in series history.

His fourth truck start will come this weekend when he tackles the seven-eighths-mile track nestled in the corn fields of Newton, Iowa. And considering it’s a place where Elliott won a K&N Pro Series race last year, few would be surprised if Blaney’s record were to fall Saturday.

But demonstrating maturity well beyond his teenage years, Elliott harbors no illusions about making history.

“I haven’t thought about it a whole lot,” Elliot said Wednesday during a NASCAR teleconference. “For me we are just there to win like everybody else is and try to do a better job than the next guy.

“I haven’t really put a whole lot into my age and how old I am and how old the rest of these guys are, just more so our personal program and what we need to do to be a little bit better.”

His father, Bill, believes his son is on the cusp of breaking through.

This season alone Dad has already seen his protégée become the youngest driver to win an ARCA speedway race when he won last month at Pocono Raceway. From Dad’s vantage point, it’s only a matter of time before Chase scores his maiden victory in a NASCAR national series event.

“I think (he’s) very close,” Bill said. “I mean, given the right circumstances, as good as we’ve run the past number of races, and you never know. It’s all a matter of circumstances, getting in the right place at the right time, and you don’t necessarily have to have the best truck. You’ve just got to put yourself in position to win.

“We’ve got to kind of take it a step at a time, but I feel that things are going in a very good direction.”

The winner of two Daytona 500s and 44 Cup victories overall isn’t the only one impressed with Chase’s acumen behind the wheel. Two years ago, Rick Hendrick signed him to a developmental deal and has openly talked about placing Chase in a Nationwide Series car for next season.

“I feel like I’m ready for it personally,” Elliott said. “I think given the right opportunity, I feel like I can do a good enough job behind the wheel to be competitive at that level, and hopefully that’s what works out.”

And with Jeff Gordon hinting that he may retire in a few years, it’s not far-fetched to think Elliott may be his heir apparent.

For now, though, father and son are both focused on the present. While future triumphs in Cup and Nationwide are fun to dream about, there are no guarantees that Chase will join his dad as a winner at NASCAR’s premiere level.

“You don’t count it until it happens, and you worry about that on the next step,” Bill said. “Hopefully everything will go in a good direction, and you did what you’ve got to do. But I guess I’m too much of a realist.

“He seems to know what he wants. It’s just if we can just get there.”