Rookie battle between Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney heats up
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year title fight is shaping up to be the best it's been in years.
Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney are off to solid starts, but both drivers are aware of the long road ahead of them.
"I think for me, I still look at a lot of areas for improvement," said Elliott before Friday's practice at Bristol Motor Speedway. "We have had our ups and downs for sure. We are still working through things and trying to get better. We are still getting used to each other and things along those lines."
Elliott nonetheless comes into Bristol an impressive 14th in Sprint Cup points.
Blaney, 20th in the points, is focused on improvement as well.
"We're definitely not where we want to be," Blaney said. "We've had some runs that have been troubling, whether it was our doing not. It's been going OK this year, but we just need to find a little bit more speed and a little bit more consistency and I think that will get our season back on track."
Blaney does have one advantage over Elliott going into this weekend at Bristol, though -- he has one Cup start under his belt at the Tennessee short track after finishing 22nd in the fall race last season.
"We didn't have the best of Cup debuts here last year, but I think the more you learn what the track does in the Cup cars comparted to the other two, I feel like you can come back and make changes and try to make yourself better and know what you need with a long run," said Blaney.
"It's nice to kind of know the race track and it really just gives you extra confidence no matter what series you're running, so that definitely makes you feel good going into the race weekend."
Elliott hopes prior experience in the XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series ranks will pay off on Sunday.
"I've been fortunate enough to race here a handful of times over the past four or fives years," Elliott said. "Hopefully, we can take a little bit of that knowledge that we have gathered over those races and try to apply it this weekend."
