The NASCAR Cup Series In-Season Challenge won’t be foremost on Chase Elliott’s mind in Sunday’s Window World 450 at North Wilkesboro Speedway (7 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Now that he’s two rounds away from a possible $1-million winner-take-all prize, however, Elliott definitely will be paying attention as he tries to eliminate upset-minded Todd Gilliland in the semifinals.
“Oh, yeah, it’d be nice to win, for sure,” said Elliott, who was bounced from last year’s Round of 16 by John Hunter Nemechek. “You know, over the last couple of seasons being involved in the In-Season Challenge, it’s not something that I’m overly consumed over, you know?
“I can say that with a lot of confidence. You just know in the back of your mind, kind of similar to the points situation in general, if you’re going out and you’re doing your job and you’re performing at a high level, then you’re likely going to take care of the other things.
“So I kind of look at that in a really similar light, but I do think it is really fun.”
Even though the end of the Cup Series regular season is just six races away, Elliott considers the In-Season Challenge a worthwhile component of the schedule.
“I think it’s a really good thing for just the sport, in general, to kind of have something else going on in the middle of the year,” he said. “I know we’re getting close to the Chase cutoff, but still, it’s kind of neat to have another little side quest going on.
“I think it’d be cool to win it. We made a good run at it last year, but couldn’t quite get it done, so hopefully we can make it happen this season.”
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