Elliott learning on the job as he prepares to take over for Gordon in 2016

Chase Elliott said his much-anticipated NASCAR Sprint Cup debut at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway earlier this year was a disaster.

Still, the 19-year-old Elliott – whose father is NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott – has made the most of his short tenure in NASCAR’s highest circuit.

Elliott was scheduled to make just five Sprint Cup starts with Hendrick Motorsports and crew chief Kenny Francis in the No. 25 Chevrolet this year and since his 38th-place finish at Martinsville, Elliott has three top-18 finishes heading into the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday for his Sprint Cup season finale.

Next year, Elliott will take over the No. 24 Chevrolet SS – currently driven by four-time Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon – for Hendrick Motorsports.

“As far as [Sprint Cup] starts, yeah, this is our last start of the year. I sure hope they don’t fire me for the rest of the Xfinity [Series] races, I’d sure like to finish out the season there,” Elliott said at an autograph session Thursday at Jud Kuhn Chevrolet in Little River. “… I’ve been happy with the Cup starts so far; obviously Martinsville was a disaster on my part. I didn’t do a very good job that day but the other ones have been decent. … I think [learning] is the biggest thing on the Cup side.”

Elliott has accomplished a lot since Jan. 6, 2014, when it was announced he would be driving the No. 9 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports full-time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, now the Xfinity Series.

He won three races in 2014, including the VFW Sports Clips Help a Hero 200 at Darlington, en route to being named the Nationwide Series champion and Nationwide Series Most Popular Driver.

“Definitely that win last year in the [Nationwide] race was my favorite memory so far,” Elliott said. “It’d be great to have some more good ones.”

With his Nationwide championship, Elliott also became the first rookie and youngest driver to win a NASCAR national series title.

“[Chase and I] started racing trucks together and we both were really fast and we both had really good stuff,” said fellow NASCAR driver Jeb Burton, the son of former NASCAR driver Ward Burton who was also on hand at Jud Kuhn on Thursday. “Chase had a great opportunity at JR Motorsports. He won some races and a championship last year and he’s doing a really good job this year as well.”

Said Elliott: “I think the biggest thing is having a year of experience and seeing some of the racetracks; it might help some. I don’t really know that it helps a ton but it was a great year, definitely. I was really happy with it and very fortunate to have the opportunity to go and give our best shot to do that.”

Elliott will get plenty of experience under his belt next year as Gordon passes him the torch, and he said he’s honored to have the blessing of a NASCAR legend. He just doesn’t want the spotlight to be on him.

“The biggest thing is it’s a great opportunity. Beyond that, I just want to go do my job and keep things simple,” Elliott said of next season. “I’m no more special than anybody else on the team; everybody has a job. No matter what your duty is on a race team, I think everybody is equally as important and it all matters. At the end of the day, [everyone] plays a part so I just want to do [my part] for my guys and hopefully we start off well.”

Elliott is looking for some success at Darlington this weekend as well. While vying for his second straight Xfinity championship, Elliott will race in this year’s VFW Sports Clips Help A Hero 200 on Saturday at Darlington. He is second in the Xfinity driver standings, only 16 points behind leader Chris Buescher.

“It definitely doesn’t get any easier and you can’t just give up because you have [a title], you’ve got to go and work harder and try to hopefully get another [title] someday,” Elliott said. “We’re going to keep digging and hopefully make up some ground.”

In the meantime, Elliott said he’s benefited a lot from his four Sprint Cup starts and expects nothing less at Darlington, the track nicknamed ‘Too Tough to Tame.’

“That place definitely brings a lot of challenges,” Elliott said of Darlington. “Having two corners that are shaped differently is something that we don’t see a lot. I think the biggest thing is going to be just [go out and] race the racetrack [and] hopefully try to manage that wall as much as you can. You’ve got to get close to it but try not to get too close, too much and hopefully just try to put yourself in a good spot to have a good day.”

His father, Bill, did a good job of that at Darlington as he won five races there and holds the track record for most top-10 finishes (35). Elliott often looks to his father for advice and strives to be like him.

Or perhaps even better.

“Yeah, that’d be great,” he said of passing his father in wins someday. “… Darlington is a cool one. He’s been fortunate to have some very good runs there and have some good days. I’d love to surpass [him] but it’s going to take a lot of hard work and it’s not going to be easy to do. He’s a champion for a reason, that’s not an easy task.”

Other members from across racing have taken notice of Elliott as well.

“Chase has done a great job; he’s got a ton of a talent and he’s a very smart racer, that’s what I see from the outside watching him,” said Greg Zipadelli, the VP of Competition at Stewart-Haas Racing who was also at Jud Kuhn on Thursday. “He seems to be at his best at the end of the day, which is something you love in a driver. I think he’s got a lot of great years ahead of him.”

Having a famous father – one who was a 1988 Winston Cup Champion and 16-time NASCAR Most Popular Driver of the Year – has certainly put Elliott under the microscope. However, Elliott has been around NASCAR garages his whole life and has gained a vast knowledge of the sport.

And as cliche as it sounds, he’s just taking it one race at a time.

“Just because you had a good day yesterday doesn’t mean today’s going to go right,” Elliott said. “That’s just the way racing is. I take it as a new weekend, new race and kind of play it that way and see how it goes.”

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 8:47 PM with the headline "Elliott learning on the job as he prepares to take over for Gordon in 2016."