Rare picture of 6-year-old Chase Elliott with dad Bill at Daytona surfaces on social media

A rare picture of a young Chase Elliott with his father Bill has surfaced on social media. The father and son could be seen in the pitlane at the Daytona International Speedway in 2002, with Bill suited up for the race weekend.

Chase Elliott is a 29-year-old NASCAR Cup Series driver who comes from a racing family. His father, Bill, raced in the premier series and won the 1988 championship, while his grandfather, George, owned a NASCAR team.

Per NASCAR Legends on X, the picture shows Chase wearing a Dodge cap while holding onto a railing, while Bill presumably watches cars in the pitlane. He was six years old when this moment at the Daytona 500 race weekend was captured.

Meanwhile, Bill Elliott was driving the No. 9 Dodge for Evernham Motorsports, the team he sold his own team to. Entering the race as a two-time Daytona 500 winner, Elliott qualified in the 15th row along with Jeff Green.

The Dawsonville native made up positions and finished the race in P11, with Ward Burton taking victory.

While Elliott came up short of a top-10 finish at "The Great American Race", he won two races (Brickyard 400, Pennslyvania 500) later in the season. The driver bagged his 44th and final race win in Rockingham the following year before retiring from full-time competition in 2012.

Bill Elliott was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015, the year his son Chase debuted in the Sprint Cup Series.

Chase Elliott drove the No. 24 Chevy during his rookie season in the Cup Series - Source: Imagn

In 2016, Chase Elliott entered his first full-time schedule in the premier series. Although the then-No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports driver didn't score a race win, he earned the Rookie of the Year award.

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Chase Elliott receives seventh consecutive Most Popular Driver award

Apart from being NASCAR Cup Series champions, Chase Elliott and his father Bill are both recipients of the Most Popular Driver award. Chase recently earned his seventh consecutive MPD award, making him one of only five Cup Series drivers to win it five times or more.

Meanwhile, Bill Elliott won the award 16 times.

During an interview at the 2024 NASCAR Awards Banquet, the 2020 NASCAR champion shared his thoughts on winning the award with the foundation laid by his family.

“If you do have the honor to receive the award, I think it’s just representing that the right way, and by the right way I mean by the way that I think they would want to be represented. Really for me, that’s all I care about because they laid the foundation for me to be here and to have some of the opportunities that I’ve had throughout my career," Elliott said via Bob Pockrass on X.

He added:

“Certainly grateful for the fans across the board, they’ve been great to me throughout my career. I’ve had the fortunate experience of seeing all that, living that first hand, it means a lot to me, I’ll never take it for granted.”

“Certainly, I want to try to make those people proud as we move into the next year and beyond," the No. 9 Chevy driver said.

The rest of the Cup Series drivers who have won the award at least five times are Dale Earnhardt Jr. (15), Richard Petty (eight) and Bobby Allison (seven).