Elliott's win triggered a buy one, get one chicken wing promotion at Hooters, one of his sponsorsgetty images
Chase Elliott yesterday won his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race before a sold out grandstand at Watkins Glen Int'l. Elliott, the son of NASCAR HOFer Bill Elliott and the presumed successor to Dale Earnhardt Jr. as the sport's new most popular driver, won the race in the No. 9 Chevrolet during his 99th Cup Series start for Hendrick Motorsports. The win by Elliott was a long time coming for him, the team and a series desperate to see new drivers step in to fill the void of a glut of recently retired stars. Elliott will likely do interviews this week but is not expected to do a media tour in N.Y. as drivers sometimes do after big events. The win was the 250th for HMS and comes a little more than a year after its most recent Cup win (Adam Stern, Staff Writer). The AP's John Kekis notes the race drew "raucous cheers of the sellout crowd" at WGI and "assured Elliott a spot in the playoffs" (AP, 8/6). In Charlotte, Brendan Marks notes Elliott has "been a fan favorite long before his first victory." NASCAR drivers and execs have "long sung" Elliott's praises. And with the "recent void of star power, it would be a boon for the sport" if Elliott "developed into the star he has been billed as." This is "one step in the right direction" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 8/6).
WINNER WINNER: Despite the fact that Elliott's major sponsor is NAPA Auto Parts and he has other visible deals with Mountain Dew and Hooters, the winning paint scheme wound up being perhaps the No. 9's least-known partner in SunEnergy1, a solar energy company run by entrepreneur and driver Kenny Habul. The company has just a couple primaries a season. Hooters will offer a buy one, get one offer at stores nationwide today where a purchase of 10 wings results in the person getting 10 additional wings for free. Hooters CMO Carl Sweat said he and franchisees were exchanging texts yesterday anticipating today's offer and are anxious to see how it performs for them. Sweat joked that he nearly caused a disturbance in a mall department store yesterday as he tracked the results, adding: "I'm told that one doesn't scream and act like a crazy person in a Nordstrom very often." Elliott's other partners include Untuckit, Under Armour and Big Green Egg, while other primary sponsors on the No. 9 include Kelley Blue Book (Stern).
