“Don’t Have Any Shame in That” – Chase Elliott Makes a ‘Guilty’ Confession, Weeks After Controversial Snowboarding Fiasco

It is always painful for any NASCAR driver to sit on the sidelines. Imagine watching your rivals’ progress while you could do nothing about it but sit in front of the television. Hendrick Motorsports’ star Chase Elliott has recently gone through that phase. While snowboarding after the Auto Club 400 race, Elliott fractured his left tibia and was out for almost six weeks. Now that he’s back, he has a guilty confession to make.

In total, the 27-year-old missed out on competing in six races. Although interim oval-replacement Josh Berry did a decent job in five of them, Elliott would have loved to be there himself. He recently opened up about the same while discussing his snowboarding injury.

Chase Elliott gets candid as he reflects on his snowboarding accident

Chase Elliott recently marked his return as he competed in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville. In his first race back, the Georgia-born driver earned an impressive top-ten finish. While a win would help with his playoff ambitions, it will take a lot of effort, having recovered from a serious injury.

Before the race in Virginia on Sunday, Elliott spoke to Fox NASCAR in detail about the snowboarding accident. He sat down with Clint Bowyer to describe the events. When asked about the incident he said, “What happened was I was out snowboarding and just parts of the trail that are elevated than other sections and I just caught it at the right place at the right time and my knee decided that was the ball game that day.”

It is certainly a pity to get injured in this fashion, especially when it’s a relaxing time for drivers. However, Elliott has more to ponder upon, as he had to inform boss Rick Hendrick about it. When asked how he did so, the 2020 Cup Series champion called and informed Hendrick, “Hey, I messed my knee up, I’m going to the ER.” By doing so, he gave him a heads-up to start looking for alternate options and form a contingency plan.

While many bosses would have lost it, it wasn’t the case with the HMS boss. Elliott said, “You know, look Rick’s pretty cool. [He] understands life happens.” The #9 driver then explained how the tough schedule takes a toll on drivers. He said, “You know as good as anybody this can be physical at some tracks, but I think just the mental wear of 38 weeks you don’t have home and away games you’re always on the road.”

He then continued expressing his emotions concerning the incident. Elliott stated, “I’m totally guilty of taking a bad day home. I think having those disconnects and those ways to escape and get your mind right for me it’s always been snowboarding. And I was a little nervous to make some of those phone calls but they’re like hey look you know stuff’s gonna happen, you’re being you, and don’t have any shame in that.”

READ MORE – “I Can’t Blame My Leg”: Chase Elliott Gutted as He Calls Out “Poor Effort” Amid Grand Return to Cup Series

While the snowboarding incident was unfortunate, there is no point fussing about it now. Having said that, it is going to be tricky for him despite recovering from his injury, as veteran Kyle Busch explained it.

Kyle Busch warns Elliott of the struggles ahead having suffered a serious injury himself

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Kyle Busch definitely has multiple shades to his personality. Luckily for Chase Elliott, Busch showed him empathy as he described the challenges the HMS star will face despite recovering.

Speaking ahead of the pre-race conference at Martinsville, the former Joe Gibbs Racing driver was quite insightful. He said, “It was not always the easiest to endure a race with the left foot and braking and all that sort of stuff. His [Elliott’s] is more knee and joint related. If he runs the whole race, he’s going to be sore afterwards. It’s just not easy to jump right back in and go. Even in my fifth week when I won at Sonoma, I couldn’t walk afterwards, it hurt so bad.”

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It would be interesting to see how Elliott goes about considering the consequences. It certainly won’t be easy, but he surely has the potential to surpass expectations. The question is, can he make it big at Talladega Superspeedway next Sunday?