Chase Elliott, who has missed the last six Cup Series races after breaking his left leg in a snowboarding accident March 3 in Colorado, will return to the driver’s seat this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver has been medically cleared by NASCAR to race this weekend, and he received a waiver from NASCAR to remain eligible for the playoffs despite not competing in every race. Currently 134 points behind the playoff cutoff with 18 races left in the regular season, Elliott most likely will have to win a race to qualify for the playoffs.
Elliott, the 2020 Cup champion, had a three-hour surgery on the night of the accident to repair his broken left tibia. He has spent most of his time rehabilitating in Colorado before returning home to Georgia in late March. He spent Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning in a Chevrolet racing simulator before determining whether he could race at Martinsville.
The 400-lap race at Martinsville, the shortest track on the circuit as a 0.526-mile flat oval, will certainly test the strength of his left leg, which he typically uses to control the brake.
“We’re looking forward to having Chase back in his race car to pick up where he left off,” said team owner Rick Hendrick in a news release. “Since the injury, he’s worked extremely hard and focused all his time and energy on returning to the No. 9 team.
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“Throughout the last six weeks, he’s stayed fully engaged with everything we’re doing, and we know he’s chomping at the bit to get on the racetrack and compete for wins.”
The 27-year-old Elliott, who has been voted as the sport’s most popular driver the last five years, has 18 Cup wins in his career, including a series-high five last season. An early accident relegated him to 38th in the 2023 Daytona 500. He then finished second at the race in California before missing the next six because of the broken leg.
JR Motorsports driver Josh Berry has substituted for Elliott in five of the six races he has missed while road-racing star Jordan Taylor got the nod for the Circuit of the Americas road course. The Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 team is 20th in the standings, 19 points behind the cutoff for “owner” playoffs, which runs under the same system as the driver playoffs and determines season-ending bonus money.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.
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