Chase Elliott enters SRX Nashville, Luke Fenhaus in for Slinger

Tuesday’s Camping World SRX Series news cycle produced a pair of new drivers as Chase Elliott announced he will run the season finale at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway on 17 July, while Luke Fenhaus won the night’s Slinger Nationals to be given entry in Saturday’s SRX race at Slinger Speedway.

Elliott is coming off his second NASCAR Cup Series win of 2021, becoming the series’ first winner at Road America since 1956 on Sunday. The Nashville race will mark a battle between father and son as the reigning champion will race against his NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee dad Bill Elliott. The elder Elliott is running the full SRX schedule and is currently ninth in points.

As Bill is using #9, Chase will have to race with a different number than his Cup car. On Twitter, he posted a poll asking fans to vote on what they believe his SRX number will be, with the options at #9, #24, #94, and #99. While #9 is already taken, #94 was used by Elliott throughout his early career while his father also raced with it as a Cup owner/driver in the 1990s. Elliott drove the #24 during his first two full seasons in Cup in 2016 and 2017, and also piloted the number in the Camping World Truck Series in 2020 and 2021. He has never utilised #99, though it is double his regular number.

Fenhaus, a 17-year-old late model racer and member of the Alan Kulwicki Driver Development Program, won the Slinger Nationals on Tuesday night to become the event’s youngest winner. The race, which was marred by a three-hour rain delay, ended with Fenhaus beating Truck regular Derek Kraus for his first victory in the prestigious event.

Immediately after his win, Fenhaus commented he is uncertain as to whether he can run the SRX race on Saturday as he was already scheduled to compete in a super late model event that night. However, Joseph Srigley of TobyChristie.com reported later in the evening that per an SRX representative, Fenhaus will indeed race.

Fenhaus and Elliott will be in the local track champion car, which has been piloted by Doug Coby (Stafford), Brian Brown (Knoxville), Kody Swanson (Eldora), and Bobby Santos III (Lucas Oil Raceway). Coby won the inaugural SRX event at his track.