When you reach the top, your head can feel dizzy. Vision also takes a toll as views get blurry. But Chase Elliott, one of the top NASCAR Cup Series contenders at the moment, is bent upon keeping his head straight. And he gets that proclivity from his family. His father, Bill Elliott, was a NASCAR star long before Chase entered the scene, but his glamor dissolved over time.

As the younger Elliott sits only ten points away from the first position on the point standings, he cannot help but reflect on his priorities. After all, being a good race car driver is just like any other profession—to focus on why you are competing. And Elliott has razor-sharp clarity in that regard.

Across almost a 40-decade career, Bill Elliott left a blazing trail of victories to admire. He holds 44 Cup Series wins, which ranks 16th of all time. The fan-favorite driver was a delight on the racetrack, especially in 1988. That year, he won the NASCAR Premier Series championship with six wins and 15 top-fives.

In 1985, Bill Elliott won three crown jewel events—the Daytona 500, the Southern 500, and the Winston 500—to clinch the ‘Million Dollar Bill’ acronym. However, even after all this glamorous success, he realized at the end of his career that very little of it matters.

That is the wisdom that his son, Chase Elliott, also imbibed. He snapped his miserable 2023 season with a Texas win and followed up with consistent top-row finishes—12 top-tens. Recently, he came out as a rival to his Hendrick Motorsports teammates. Now holding second place in points, Chase Elliott talked to The Athletic about how he approaches this success. He said, “Understanding and prioritizing what matters. When I get done racing and all this is gone, who is going to be there? Do those people care how many races you win or how many championships you have or how many poles you got? Because odds are the people close to you don’t care about any of that stuff.”

And Chase Elliott hailed his father for this deeply philosophical and wise attitude. “I’ve watched my dad (Bill Elliott) go through this. He raced for years and years and was the star of the show, and then one day, all this stuff is gone. It’s over. You are no longer in the spotlight every weekend. Understanding that and having a really good grasp on the reality that you’re not going to live this life forever is really important. Otherwise, you can get a false sense of reality for not only yourself, but those that you surround yourself with, too.”

Of course, Bill Elliott helped his son to reach the top of the game several times, including scripting history in NASCAR.

Greatness runs in the family

“Awesome Bill from Dawsonville” had a special place in fans’ hearts. He was the Most Popular Driver for a record 16 times until he removed himself from the ballot. And Chase Elliott upheld that family tradition. He won his sixth popularity award in 2023 as well, a year that spelled misery for him. Missing six races due to a broken leg at a snowboarding accident, he failed to clinch a playoff berth. Then NASCAR also suspended Elliott for one race after he deliberately wrecked Denny Hamlin at the Coca-Cola 600 race.

Despite these massive setbacks, Chase Elliott held faith in his lofty family ideals. He attributed his resilience to the strength that he got primarily from his father. “Last year was rough in a lot of ways, but that’s life, you learn to continue to grow and reinvent yourself in new ways. As I’ve continued down this journey, you start to experience things you’ve never experienced before and this year was one of them for me. I look at next year as an opportunity to grow and be a better driver, be a better person, and come out really strong at Daytona when we start our season.”

Evidently, the Elliott family is an intricate part of NASCAR’s legendary stories. And Chase Elliott is the torchbearer of the family’s respect, holding his head up high and prioritizing what matters.