“It just doesn’t feel good”: When Chase Elliott confessed his eating rituals before a NASCAR race

Chase Elliott, the Hendrick Motorsports driver, once revealed in an interview with Jeff Gluck of The Athletic in his “12 Questions” series that he is not a “big” eater before the race. In the 2019 interview, Elliott had termed “full-blown Mexican food” bad before the race.

Chase Elliott, the driver of the #9 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, is the son of NASCAR legend, Bill Elliott. The Georgia native made history in 2014 when he became the youngest ever to win a national series championship in the Xfinity Series. At just 24 years old, he won the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Championship. His win was Hendrick Motorsports first since 2016 and also added him to the list of father-son champions in NASCAR.

When Jeff Gluck, the veteran NASCAR journalist asked him the “12 Questions”, one of the questions posed was:

"What is a food you would not recommend eating right before a race and are you speaking with personal experience with this recommendation?"

Chase Elliott replied:

"I’ve been lucky. I’ve never really ventured very far outside the norm. I feel like full-blown Mexican food would be bad; you’d just feel really full. But I’ve never been a big eater before races. I don’t like to eat a lot — I like to eat at lunchtime, like everybody else does — but I don’t like to eat a four-course meal before we go race. It just doesn’t feel good."

Chase Elliott is currently ranked 4th in the NASCAR Cup Series driver standings with 159 points. In an impressive performance at the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas, Elliott finished fourth on March 2 after a first-lap incident pushed him to the back of the field.

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Chase Elliott spoke out on his ally’s bond with HMS before their first NASCAR race of the season

Chase Elliott is set to drive the UniFirst-sponsored #9 Chevy Camaro ZL1 for the first time in the 2025 season at the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 23. UniFirst, a leading uniform rental organization, is celebrating its 10th year of partnership with Hendrick Motorsports and sixth as Elliott's primary sponsor. The new paint scheme showcases UniFirst's refreshed brand identity with a vibrant green car, gray racing stripes and the #9 in black.

“I’m excited to climb inside the No. 9 UniFirst Chevrolet for the first time this season at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It’s been awesome to see how UniFirst continues to evolve its partnership with our team, and I really like the new paint scheme we’ll be sporting this weekend. I think the fans are going to like it too,” Elliott said via UniFirst.com.

Elliott expressed excitement about the new paint scheme and the evolving partnership with UniFirst, noting that he believes fans will appreciate the updated look.