By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
Chase Elliott faces more than one battle at North Wilkesboro
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C.—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.”
Interview: Chase Elliott (No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet) –
Top of Ryan Blaney’s bucket list: Hosting Saturday Night Live
With a handlebar moustache straight out of Tombstone Territory and a laid-back, affable personality, Ryan Blaney has the potential to expand his presence beyond racing.
Jeff Gordon extended NASCAR’s reach in 2003 when he hosted Saturday Night Live, and Blaney wouldn’t mind following in the four-time champion’s footsteps.
“I would love to,” Blaney said when asked whether he would like to host the show. “That’s probably P1 on my bucket list. “I would love to do SNL. I’m a big SNL fan.
“That’s a big commitment though. If you guest-host SNL, you’re gone for a week. I don’t really have a week in my schedule, unless it’s in the winter. Maybe one day—that would be really, really neat.”
Blaney already has his musical guest picked out.
“I’m good buddies with Whiskey Myers,” he said. “I think they would put on a pretty good show.”
Blaney does have a brief history in television. He had a guest role in 2019 on the Magnum P.I. episode “Winner Takes All.”
“That one actually worked out fun, because I was vacationing in Hawaii, in Maui, and they filmed it in Honolulu,” Blaney said. “They said, ‘Hey, can you come film this now?’ and yeah, so I took a puddle jumper over to Honolulu and filmed it.
“That was just neat because the timing of it worked out pretty cool.”
Interview: Ryan Blaney (No. 12 Team Penske Ford) –
Great dress rehearsal for Shane van Gisbergen at North Wilkesboro
Fighting for a berth in the postseason Chase, Shane van Gisbergen welcomes all the track time he can get on ovals, which comprise the final six events in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season.
Van Gisbergen made the most of the laps he ran in Saturday’s FaithFest 250 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race on Saturday at North Wilkesboro Speedway, which will host Sunday’s Window World 450 (7 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
After qualifying 19th and getting the feel of his No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in the first two stages of the race, SVG made steady progress though the field in the final stage, ultimately finishing third and matching his best performance on an oval track in any of NASCAR’s national series.
(The New Zealander also placed third in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta in February 2024).
“It was a lot of fun,” van Gisbergen said. “Qualifying wasn’t that good, but once I got in the race and kind of found what I needed and got adjustments, I started moving forward and I had a lot of fun. It was really cool.”
For SVG, the primary value was gaining experience on the track. He enters Sunday’s Cup race 15th in the series standings, 31 points above the current cut line for the Chase.
“The Cup cars are very different, but it’s got to help—yeah,” he said.
