Chase Elliott to replace Jeff Gordon in the #24 car

The speculation has turned out to be true. Chase Elliott will be the driver in 2016 to take over the #24 Chevrolet at Hendrick Motorsports made famous by Jeff Gordon. Gordon, who is retiring from full-time competition after the upcoming season, has taken the #24 car to 92 race wins and four series championships. He has driven it in every race since his series debut in the 1992 Hooters 500 at Atlanta, which was also the legendary Richard Petty's last race.


Elliott is the defending Xfinity Series champion and currently drives the #9 Chevrolet Camaro full-time in the series for the Hendrick-aligned JR Motorsports. In 2015, Elliott will drive a #25 NAPA Auto Parts-sponsored Chevrolet in five races in preparation for his 2016 rookie campaign. The #25 is also a famous car in the history of Hendrick Motorsports, and today that car is now Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s #88. Although it appears Elliott will keep the #24, some sources are reporting that the team is trying to get the number 9 or 94, which are two of the numbers driven by his father Bill Elliott. Richard Petty has even offered to give up the number 9, which he inherited from Ray Evernham (Gordon's former crew chief and former owner of that Petty car, which Bill Elliott once drove as an Evernham Dodge) for Chase to drive at Hendrick. But Elliott has said that no one will truly replace Gordon, even if the number 24 is indeed kept.