Elliott showing maturity beyond his years

NEWTON - It's pretty easy to forget how old Chase Elliott is.

He walks, talks and races like a man who's been around the block. Like a man who isn't stressed out, worried or the least bit nervous.

But then you remember the Dawsonville, Ga. native is just 18 years old, and was still a senior in high school this year. He's impressed everyone he's come across in his short time in the NASCAR Nationwide series garage.

'I want somebody to understand and tell me how an 18 year-old is as mature as this kid is,” said NASCAR Nationwide Series Director Wayne Auton. 'He has just been a pleasure to work with. And I keep telling everybody, the thing I am most amazed by and have a lot of respect for is how the kid is outside the car.”

Elliott makes a big step toward the adulthood he already embodies this weekend at his graduation. He'll leave Iowa Speedway Saturday morning, fly back Georgia and walk in the King's Ridge Christian School graduation ceremony in Alpharetta, Ga. Then he'll fly back to Newton for qualifying later Saturday and the Get to Know Newton 250 on Sunday.

'It hasn't been too terribly bad,” Elliott said of juggling high school and racing. 'In a way, it's been a good balance for me to go home and be able to go to school and still have that high school experience.”

Being raised by 1988 NASCAR Cup champion Bill Elliott, the two-time Nationwide Series race-winner has been exposed to media and the spotlight from the beginning.

Dealing with fame can be hard if you didn't grow up around it, or came from humble beginnings. But being humble has never been a challenge for the soft-spoken soon-to-be high school graduate.

His high school experience - aside from being gone a lot - was as close to typical as it gets. Elliott got a now famous tardy slip the morning after the 2014 Daytona 500, writing as his excuse, 'Was watching the race, thought for sure we would have the day off … #junior.”

Elliott laughed, too, when asked if attention among classmates was raised after back-to-back wins, saying was still just Chase, their classmate.

'It's not changed, really. I've been racing ever since I've been going there,” Elliott said. 'It's what I've always loved to do, and my buddies have always been supportive of that.”

Between how he was raised and what he's been exposed to already, it's clear Elliott knows who he is. And that's not something many teenagers - or grown adults, for that matter - can say.

'His high school graduation is Saturday, and he's more worried about whether or not he's going to get to walk for his graduation than where he's going to win his next race,” Auton said. 'And to me, that's a kid that's grounded like a kid should be.”

Not only is Elliott grounded, but he's found a life balance that has worked out so far. With the demand on NASCAR drivers nowadays, that's just one more impressive thing about him.

One of the biggest reliefs for Elliott, he said, will be to fully focus on racing once he receives his diploma and improve upon what he's already done.

If that happens, given his last three races were two wins and a second-place finish, it spells bad news for the rest of the garage.

'I think it's going to be good to get out of school and hopefully put some more effort into racing and just try to improve,” Elliott said. 'Hopefully that will be a step in the right direction for us once I get out.”

Despite all the superlatives and heaps of praise, Elliott and everyone around him know not to put the proverbial cart ahead of the horse. There's a long road between race winner and champion, and he knows as well as anyone the kind of focus that takes.

That said, it doesn't stop those watching his progress from marveling at who he is now and what he might become.

'His knowledge - he definitely got some blood from his dad. His dad says he's three times better than he ever thought about being,” Auton said. 'There's always that kid that comes along - Jeff Gordon comes to mind, how big he turned out to be - there's always one who has the blood, as they say. And Chase, in this era, he's probably the one leading the charge.”

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