Elliott ready for Cup debut

Chase Elliott

Martinsville Speedway is one of the most exciting tracks on the Sprint Cup Series circuit. It also just so happens to be the one where Hendrick Motorsports has seen the most success – Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s 2014 win was the organization's 22nd at the track. And it's where Chase Elliott will make his Sprint Cup Series debut, driving the #25 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevy SS.

It's the first of five Cup races for Elliott in 2015. "When we first came up with these five races it didn't really occur to me how quickly Martinsville came up on the schedule," Elliott said. "I don't know why I didn't think it was so soon in the year. I thought it was later on and thought, 'We've got a while.' Then I get to looking at the schedule at Daytona and I'm like, 'This race is coming up quick.'"

Now that it's here, the first priority will be a strong qualifying effort. That will be the same story for all five of Elliott's 2015 Cup races – at Martinsville, Richmond, Charlotte, Indianapolis and Darlington. "The biggest goal, first, is to try to get into all of them," Elliott said. "That is the first thing – you don't want to get ahead of yourself. Just try to have good qualifying efforts at all of them but not forget about the race. We definitely want to focus on that and try to be good there." Hendrick Motorsports