CHICAGO – The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup has arrived, and for Chase Elliott and Jimmie Johnson, it brings with it the same goal – a championship.
The two Hendrick Motorsports teammates enter the Chase under different circumstances.
For Elliott, it marks the rookie’s first trip to NASCAR’s postseason.
“I’m definitely proud to be here,” Elliott said. “I’m excited about it. I think it’s a great opportunity. We want to try to do the best we can each week, like we always say, but I’m proud of it nonetheless.”
For Johnson, the Chase berth was his 13th, keeping his streak alive as the only driver to have made the Chase every year.
After earning both of his wins early in the season, Johnson was asked how it feels to enter this year’s playoffs as a bit of an “underdog” to some.
"I'd rather be dominating and be on top and be the top pick,” the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS said. “I don't like where we're at. We're working hard and there's a lot of optimism and a lot of great things happening. We just need to deliver consistently and execute at the track.”
As for Elliott’s rookie campaign, the driver of the No. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet SS said it has had its “ups and downs” after he earned 13 top-10 finishes and five top-five finishes in the regular season.
“I’m proud of some moments, not so proud of others but we’ve given ourselves a couple opportunities to contend for some wins, which I think is good,” he said. “I think we have to put the positives together and get ready for these next few weeks.”
Johnson has two years of experience with the Chase’s elimination format. Elliott will be tackling it for the very first time this year.
While Johnson has yet to advance past the second round in the new format, he noted that if it weren’t for a mechanical issue in 2015, he had a “very real chance of being in the final four at Homestead.”
“The way that the Chase works, if we can run in the top five and stay alive and make it to Homestead, we do have some time to sort things out and get back to where we need to be,” he said.
Both drivers acknowledged the importance of the final 10 races of the season, but Elliott said his team’s one-week-at-a-time mentality won’t change.
“We just need to not get ahead of ourselves,” he said. “This is a long stretch of races and it’s obviously a very important stretch of races, but we just need to try to be ourselves and go and have that goal each week to try to go and win each weekend.”
The teammates have their eyes on the prize, but Johnson said that if a seventh championship eludes him this season, there’s a driver he’d like to see hoisting the trophy.
“I would love to see Chase win a championship,” he said. “If he doesn’t win this one, he’s going to win one, there’s no doubt about it.”
The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup kicks off this Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SIriusXM NASCAR Radio.