Grill’s a talented, experienced racer who has no desire to move beyond the short tracks of the Southeast. His performance on the track helps his family sell the race cars they build. And after years of racing at the same places week after week, he’s become very good at it.

 But it’s getting more difficult for Grill to dominate these days. Chase Elliott is stepping up to challenge him every time out. This past weekend’s double-header saw Elliott score two runner-up finishes to Grill and show that he’s ready to take the battle to Grill every time out.

 In the opener, on Friday night at Five Flags, Elliott qualified fourth but started fifth in an inverted start, while Grill got the pole but had to start eighth.

 At the drop of the green Elliott was ready to back up his recent Five Flags win and moved into the third position before Lap One was on the scoreboard. On the next restart, Elliott started working on Mike Garvey and passed him for the second position on Lap Four.  Elliott maintained the second position until Lap 26 when he moved into the first place by passing the No. 82 of Donnie Wilson.

  Elliott pulled away by six car lengths before he started lapping the field.  In the meantime, Grill worked his way up to the second position by Lap 33 and was running Elliott down.  By Lap 45 Grill was working on Elliott for first place, but Elliott held him off until the yellow flag was displayed for the mandatory halfway pit stop and he led the field down pit road. 

At the start of the last 50 laps, Elliott was on the pole with Grill in second. Grill got around him on lap 53 for the lead and checked out.  The race went green until Lap 91 when the caution flag flew for a spin on the frontstretch.  The top five on the restart [as well as eventual finishing order] were Grill, Elliott, Casey Smith, Bubba Pollard and Garvey.  Elliott battled Smith until he finally pulled away for a solid second position on Lap 97, but Grill had too much distance to make up before the checkered flag.

 As Elliott rolled under the checkered flag, he radioed to his crew: “I think I know what we can do to get him [Grill] next time,” he said.

  In the second half of the twin bill, at Mobile on Saturday, Elliott and the Aaron’s crew had to battle rain, heat, humidity along with engine and chassis problems.

 After a disappointing practice session, Elliott picked up more than any car in qualifying. He was just over 6/10^th of a second per lap quicker than his fastest practice time earlier in the day, and wound up fourth fastest.

 An inverted start put him on the pole for the start with Grill alongside in second.

 At the start of the race. Elliott continued to battle the same handling and engine issues he and the crew had fought throughout practice – the motor was skipping and the car wouldn’t turn. 

 Elliott dropped back all the way to sixth position by Lap 12, and when caution came out on Lap 18 crew chief Ricky Turner called him into the pits to work on the car.  Elliott returned to the field in the 10th position.  When he realized that the ninth position was probably the best he was going to get in the first half of the event Elliott went to work trying different lines to see what changes to make during the five-minute break at Lap 50.  He told Turner what the car was doing and where he needed to be better, and Turner took the information and made the adjustments he thought would be best.

At the start of the second half, Elliott began his march toward the front, and had passed the No. 49 car of Ryan Lawler for eighth place when the caution came out on Lap 52.  Elliott came on the radio and asked Turner, “What did you do to this thing?”  Turner listed his changes and inquired, “Why, do you like it?” 

 Elliott replied: “A lot!” 

 The Aaron’s Dream Machine was still skipping and still not turning the center of the corner to Elliott’s liking, but he could manage the car much better.  Chase’s dad Bill Elliott, working in the spotter’s role, had been telling his son all night: “Stay out of the bumps. It’s upsetting your car, and you’re losing all of your drive off the corner.”  The younger Elliott initially questioned his dad’s plan but when he moved up the track just a bit, it made all the difference in the world.

  He immediately caught and passed Bubba Pollard for seventh.  Meanwhile, an altercation between Josh Hamner and Donnie Wilson sent Wilson into the wall and put Elliott in the sixth position for the restart. 

 Elliott passed Mike Garvey for fifth on the restart and took fourth from Josh Hamner on Lap 85.  He passed Jeff Fultz for third on Lap 89 and when Casey Smith dropped off the track with mechanical problems during the next caution period, Elliott lined up second behind Grill for a 10-lap shootout.

   Elliott held off Pollard on the restart and was reeling in Grill, but just like the night before, there weren’t  enough laps to overtake him. Elliott finished second again.

 But Bill Elliott was pleased, “Good job buddy,” he said. “I’m proud of you-the way you fought back all night,”

   And Chase Elliott knew he and his crew had overcome a lot as well, and he told them that as the race ended.

 “You kept working on it and made some good adjustments and we came through this with a good night,” he said.

 And Turner and crew vowed to have a better handling package the next time out.   Through it all, Elliott took the lead in the Blizzard series as well as the Miller Lite series and continues to lead the Sunoco Gulf Coast Championship going into the fourth of the five-race series.

(Mech. Failure)