Chase Elliott had it rough in 2023, undergoing obstacles he never imagined would block his path. Beginning in March, he slipped on a snow slope. The snowboarding venture broke his knee as well as his participation chances in the next six races. Locking horns with Denny Hamlin at the Charlotte race also handed him a one-race suspension. But much to his dismay, Elliott’s season-special woes didn’t end even after the final race at Phoenix.

A nagging pain was creeping up the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s shoulder for a long time, and he could not shrug it off any longer. He decided to put an end to his 2023 misfortunes once and for all.

A perpetual battle with physical injury that, to an extent, ended in 2023

Elliott went through a winless season for the first time in 2023. Ever since entering the Cup Series in 2016, he had snagged glittering victories every year. But the snowboarding accident broke that victorious record in 2023. However, Elliott was still able to hold on to NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver title for the sixth consecutive time.

As his fans rallied behind him, Chase put up a tough fight against his medical problems. Recently, he opened up about an age-old shoulder injury that had bothered him for years. Speaking on Dale Earnhardt Jr’s podcast, he said, “My shoulder has always bothered me for probably 8 or 10 years.” Elliott then detailed an incident at Watkins Glen where he felt his shoulder acting up.

He tried to heal it as best he could, “Had it worked on. Massaged as much as I could, did some of those things at home that you do to strengthen other parts of your shoulder to kinda get by. And I did. That worked for a long time.” Revealing how he likely injured himself while playing baseball, Elliott added, “I would say over the course of the last year and a half, it just bothered me more and more… It just got to where I was doing less, and it got more and more sore, I guess, as I had gotten older.”

But the Hendrick Motorsports driver could only go so far as to fix an old injury. “So I asked a couple of guys at the race track, couple of our trainers, ‘Hey, would you mind, you know I think my shoulder’s been bothering me some’…This was in Phoenix, November. I was like, ‘Man, I think something is really wrong with my shoulder.’ He kinda pulled it around this and that, this and that, and said, ‘I think you got a torn labrum. You should go get an MRI.’ So I did, I did have a torn labrum.”

The Dawsonville, Georgia native then underwent an outpatient procedure to correct a torn labrum. The shoulder surgery was successful, as was apparent in Elliott’s readiness to flag off the 2024 season.

Chase Elliott left no stone unturned to ensure a seamless season this year

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Once a mishap leaves you battered and bruised, you emerge from it wiser and eager to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Chase Elliott might have felt similar emotions after the end of the 2023 season. After his shoulder surgery, Elliott raced in the Busch Light Clash, but he went the extra mile and ran a super late models race at New Smyrna Speedway to further test his shoulder.

Talking to The Tennessean, he said, “The shoulder feels good; I was doing a lot of rehab over the winter two or three days a week working real hard at it to try to get in a position where I could drive in the Clash because that window was pretty tight. I feel like it’s in a good place. After the Clash it felt good and after the event at New Smyrna it felt good there too.”

Chase Elliott is coming back strong after a tumultuous 2023 season. Do you think he can fetch a glorious victory in 2024?

“Sick to My Stomach”: Chase Elliott Details Ski-Boarding Injury That Kicked Off His Worst Cup Series Form