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Chase Elliott Reveals a Common Interest With Rival Denny Hamlin That Convinced Him to Leave Twitch

Published 03/21/2024, 10:26 AM EDT

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While Cup Series drivers have some of the busiest calendars of any motorsport, there comes a time when they’re left with nothing to do in the off-season. This is when most drivers opt to explore some of their other hobbies. For Chase Elliott, that hobby has quickly transitioned into a habit. During the off-season, Elliott had surprised the entire NASCAR community by trying his shot at live-streaming on Twitch.

On the other hand, it’s no secret that motorsport drivers love golf. While the Netflix Cup saw the worlds of F1 and the PGA Tour collide, NASCAR drivers proved they are no strangers to golf clubs either. From pairing up with 23XI co-owner to taking up caddy duties for 2x Golf Major champion Bubba Watson, Denny Hamlin finds the Gentleman’s sport to be the perfect stress buster when he isn’t racing. With that said, it seems like Chase Elliott has taken a page out of the Golf Guys Tour player’s book.

Although Elliott had been an avid gamer far before his streams, the HMS driver revealed to Dale Earnhardt Jr. that he was straying away from the digital world. Now that the season has picked up, Chase Elliott seemed to have found himself spending time on the Golf course instead. He shared with Dale Jr., “Love playing golf. I would pick golf over video games any day of the week.”

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Just like Hamlin, Truex Jr, and a few other drivers, Elliott took a liking to Golf, and it immediately became the perfect alternative to live-streaming to release some stress. He further stated, “I would say I started going a few times a year probably around the time I was racing for ya’ll (JR Motorsports). But not very seriously at all. I would say I’ve been semi-serious for five years and gotten pretty serious in the last year and a half, so I enjoy it. I’m still not very good, but I do enjoy playing a lot.”

USA Today via Reuters

Chase Elliott revealed he had been practicing golf for over five years, but treated it rather casually until recently. Over the years, the #9 Camaro driver even got a few lessons to help him ‘think about certain things’. Speaking of which, Junior was curious to know how the HMS driver had improved over the years, hoping to find a solution to his own golfing struggles.

He concluded, “The thing about golf that I’ve learned is, everybody’s swing looks so different, and you kind of have to do what works for you, I think in a lot of ways. But yeah, I would say, for a long time, just abysmal, shooting 100 plus, and I’d gotten pretty frustrated with it because I was like, ‘Man I’m not getting any better’. If anything, I feel like I’m getting worse as I’m playing. But I just enjoy being out on those nice weather days.”

While it’s safe to say Chase Elliott has found the perfect alternative to live-streaming to help pass the off-season, how does such a busy driver take out time for a game of such patience?

Chase Elliott can balance work and play perfectly

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Excited to know how keen Elliott was on getting better at golf, Dale Earnhardt Jr had just one question for the most popular driver. Considering the time a usual golf match takes, sometimes half the day, Junior inquired; “You don’t feel guilty? Ever?”

While Elliott revealed that some guilt went with playing golf during the season, the HMS driver would make up for lost time fairly quickly. He shared with Earnhardt Jr, “ I think there are days that I have thought, ‘Man, I have this, this and this, I need to go and get this done’. But I’m willing to stay up till midnight or 2 in the morning to get what I need to get done, done. If the weather is good in the morning and I can adjust my schedule to go do that, I totally would. And I would just work late, or do whatever I need to do to get caught back up.”

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After taking a look at how seriously Chase Elliott is taking his golfing shenanigans, it’s safe to say they aren’t just ‘shenanigans’ anymore. With that said, will Elliott soon appear on the Golf Guys Tour too?

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Written by:

Kabir Bajaj Ahmed

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Kabir Bajaj Ahmed is an F1 & NASCAR Writer at EssentiallySports. Known for his storytelling and extensive research skills, he has covered multiple stories on Dale Earnhardt Jr and his legendary dad, allowing readers to relive the thunderous days of 'The Intimidator'. Being a racer himself, Kabir can resonate with the motorsport world better than most.
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Edited by:

Ariva Debnath