“I’ve never in my life! This is unbelievable! This right here is something I’ll never forget.” The ecstasy was audible in Chase Elliott’s voice soon after last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race. The Hendrick Motorsports star finally broke his long 44-race winless streak. What is more, the glorious event happened in his home state of Atlanta. But among Elliott’s achievements was fulfilling a 9-year-old promise.

For nearly a decade, Chase Elliott, a Georgia native, has had a special contest, “Design To Drive”, for young cancer patients at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. The lucky winner would get to design Elliott’s race car, fire suit, shoes, helmet, and gloves for one special race each season. As it turned out, that special race in 2025 was the Quaker State 400.

Chase Elliott reflects on his other victory

Well, the race in itself was thrilling. Yet, besides just breaking his winless skid, Chase Elliott was motivated by another strong factor. Rhealynn Mills is a patient with osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer. Her artwork graced Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet for Atlanta. It included gold childhood cancer ribbons on the fenders and sides, a stethoscope, heart monitors, and bandages. She also included messages: “Cure Cancer” and “Helping Kids Like Me.” Carrying that artwork was what pushed Elliott to maximize his efforts. With 33 laps, his crew chief decided not to opt for fresh tires, and that allowed Elliott to rocket from 8th to 2nd within the last 10 laps. He eventually toppled Brad Keselowski by 0.168 seconds with help from teammate Alex Bowman.

In a recent episode of ‘Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour’, Chase Elliott reflected on the victory. He shed light on how 9 years of ‘Design To Drive’ have mostly been fruitless. This marked the first time Elliott could carry a cancer-afflicted child’s artwork to Victory Lane, and he was ecstatic: “It was incredible…the opportunity to win at your home track, just everything about it is different. It’s just extremely meaningful…The whole picture of everything that was going on and everything that had gone into the week. Historically, the design to drive paint scheme has had pretty poor results. And it was kind of a running joke, really, going into the weekend. So, just couldn’t be more proud of the entire effort.”

Another purpose of ‘Design To Drive’ is to raise money for cancer patients. Chase Elliott continued with crucial information about how fans could chip in: “Yeah, so everything’s up for grabs in a sweepstakes, basically. And it’s up for grabs through the beginning of July. So, there’s still a little bit of time to enter. And you can get all that information on my website. It’s been amazing. This is the 9th year of Design to Drive, we’ve raised over a half a million bucks through that period of time for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. All the proceeds are going to them, as always. And yeah, should spice things up a little bit.”

What could be better than Chase Elliott’s long-awaited 2025 victory coming in such a grand manner? The story behind Elliott’s initiative is inspiring as well.

Remembering a lost one

Well, the Elliott family is legendary in NASCAR circles. Before Chase Elliott, his father Bill conquered many racetracks and many fans’ hearts. However, there was another talented racer besides this father-son duo. Between Bill Elliott’s championship in 1988 and his son Chase’s title three decades later, another Elliott had dazzled briefly. Casey Elliott, Bill’s nephew, rose through the ranks in the early 1990s. He reflected the same promise and raw speed that was characteristic of the family. Casey could have easily carried the Elliott name into NASCAR’s future, until cancer ended his career. He passed away in 1996 at just 21 years old, a few months after Chase was born.

Hence, ‘Design To Drive’ has a deeper, familial meaning for Chase Elliott. He said recently, “When you have close family that experiences something like that, it carries on. I just think back, ‘My gosh, what was this like? How in the world did they even get through this?’” That is why he was more overjoyed to make Rhealynn Mills happy after winning in Atlanta. He said, “Rhealynn and the Mills family, that whole picture was just incredible. Their attitudes were amazing, very contagious. It was fun to watch her kind of warm up to all of us throughout the day. And hopefully, we gave her and her family an experience and a moment that they’ll remember forever. Because we certainly received that on our end, and she was a large part of it.”

Clearly, Chase Elliott has multiple reasons to celebrate his Atlanta success. As the 2025 season progresses, let us see where Elliott will dazzle us next.