NASCAR Cup Series star Chase Elliott has opened up on the 'special' honor of replacing the late Kyle Busch in two races at North Wilkesboro Speedway next weekend.
Alongside his Cup Series duties at North Wilkesboro, Elliott is set to run in multiple other series, recently adding a CARS Tour Late Model drive with JR Motorsports and a Truck Series drive with Spire Motorsports to his schedule.
As it turns out, Elliott says that both of those drives were meant to be for Busch prior to the NASCAR legend passing away on May 21st, with the Hendrick Motorsports star asked to step in and replace him for the events.
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Chase Elliott on special honor of replacing Kyle Busch
Speaking ahead of this weekend's race at Atlanta, Elliott was asked how he was feeling about those additional upcoming duties, and whether or not they carried any extra weight because of who he was filling in for.
“I’m super excited about it for a lot of different reasons," Elliott explained at EchoPark Speedway. "I don’t get to run Late Model races a lot.
"There’s just really not a lot of mid-week shows that work out for us with how our schedule is. It’s not like the dirt world where they race a lot of mid-week shows, so I’m excited about that.
"I appreciate Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) asking me to drive his Late Model stock, as well. That’s not a car that I’ve really had a lot of experience racing, in general. But both that race and the Truck race, as well, they were meant to be for Kyle (Busch).
"I think Dale was going to get him to drive that Late Model stock, as well, so it will definitely be special for that reason.
"I would love to go and get a win in honor of him, his career and the friend he was to me over the years. I don’t know how my name got drawn, asked or what it was, but I appreciate them thinking of me and letting me have that honor to go run those races.”
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