What was supposed to be a drive for Kyle Busch will be piloted by Chase Elliott at the zMAX CARS Tour on July 17 at the North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Elliott will drive the iconic Dale Jr. styled No. 8 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Late Model at North Wilkesboro and make his second start in the racing series.

His debut came at the now-defunct Super Late Model Division at Hickory, where he finished behind his to-be Hendrick Motorsports teammate, William Byron. And now he is ready for another adventure.

A few days after Kyle Busch's demise on May 21, Dale Jr. had revealed that the late two-time Cup Series champion had contacted him to run that No. 8 Late Model car. Speaking about it on the "Dale Jr Download" podcast, he had said:

"I was texting with him the day before he passed away about getting together this Thursday to bring his seat for his late model over to my shop. And he goes, 'I wanna run the Dale Jr. 8’. And I was like, ‘You got it. That’s what’s on it right now. We’ll run the Dale Jr. 8.'"

Busch suffered from a severe bout of pneumonia on May 21 that turned into sepsis and led to his demise a few hours after he was rushed to the hospital. He was 41 years old at the time of his passing.

When Chase Elliott recalled his Late Model days with Kyle Busch

A day after Kyle Busch's demise, Chase Elliott took a trip down memory lane to talk about his racing days, where he competed against Busch in his early days as a driver.

Sharing an anecdote, he said (via Noah Lewis on YouTube):

"I think back to like racing against him in Late Model days, and he was coming back down and running a lot of those races when I was coming along. And that was such a cool thing for me at the time to be able to race against the guy that you admired and looked up to on Sundays."

Following this, Elliott recalled one particular race at Berlin, Michigan, where he raced hard against Busch. He added:

"I think I was like 14 or 15 and, he won obviously. But look that there were so many lessons in all of that. Truthfully, you're learning, and you probably don't even realize that you're learning, but you were being taught by one of the best. And I think those lessons you carry with you throughout your whole career."

Elliott arrived in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2015 and raced against Busch until his demise.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Yash Kotak