“Chase Elliott you mean”: Fans react with Joe Gibbs Racing all set to announce new driver amid Christopher Bell’s slip up

Christopher Bell leaked a big secret last Friday during a press conference at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway media center. Chase Briscoe is expected to replace Martin Truex Jr., as the latter retires at the end of 2024. However, while revealing the big news, Bell mentioned just "Chase" and since then, the fans have been mixing it up with other drivers named "Chase".

The news is not official as of now. However, Bob Pockrass has recently dropped an update on X saying that Joe Gibbs Racing has called for a press conference on Tuesday where they will make an announcement about the upcoming season. Confirming that the announcement would be about Briscoe joining JGR, the veteran journalist said,

"Joe Gibbs Racing announces a Tuesday afternoon news conference to announce a driver for 2025 .... The driver isn't named in the news alert but that would be the Chase Briscoe to the No. 19 announcement."

Fans reacted to the update, with one hilariously mentioning Chase Elliott.

"Chase Elliott you mean," said the fan.

Another fan joined the fun, hoping that Chase Purdy, and not Chase Elliott, would join Joe Gibbs Racing.

"Nope Chase Purdy!" exclaimed the fan

Here are a few other funny comments to Bob Pockrass' post:

"I hope it’s Chase Elliott. Let’s turn this sport upside down for a couple days," demanded a fan.

"I think Elliott should show up at the conference 🤣" another fan wrote.

"They should have Bell make the announcement. Let him finish what he started," someone joked.

"Chase Elliott or Chase Purdy or Chase briscoe? CBell said Chase!" a fan added.

On that note, Chase Elliott is currently under a contract, which he had signed ahead of the 2022 Daytona 500. The terms of the contract will keep him behind the wheel of the number 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet until 2027. Therefore, it is evident that Elliott is not planning to leave Hendrick Motorsports anytime soon.

Chase Elliott reacts to Christopher Bell's slip-up

Following Bell's fiasco, Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick sent several screenshots and messages to Chase Elliott mentioning the HMS driver leaving Hendrick Motorsports. Some of them even said that he would be owning a team.

Elliott was amused at these rumors but was quick to shut them down during a recent media availability.

"I guess I’m headed now to go drive for JGR now, too. I don’t think so," Elliott said. "If I am I didn’t know about it. But I felt bad for Bell, such an honest mistake you could tell. It was such a genuine, he just slipped up."

“It was funny, the boss actually sent me a message … it was all kinds of stuff. He sent me this screenshot that I was leaving and going somewhere else and was going to own a team. Been all kinds of stuff, evidently, going on that I didn’t know I was doing this week," Elliott laughed.

Nevertheless, the Dawsonville native was happy for Chase Briscoe. However, he hoped that Bell had not run into any trouble for leaking the news early as it would have come out sooner or later. Reflecting on the same, the 2020 Cup Series champion said,

"So, excited for Briscoe though. I think that will be a really good opportunity for him. Hate that Bell was the one to break the news, I’m sure he got in trouble for that. It’s all good, it was going to come out eventually."

Meanwhile, the Cup Series action resumes at Nashville Superspeedway on June 30. The 300-lap event known as the Ally 400 will air live on NBC Sports and Peacock. The race can also be heard on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR radio. Chase Elliott will enter the race second on the leaderboard with 620 points to his name.