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| Chase Elliott put on what could be called the best Sprint Cup Series rookie season since Denny Hamlin in 2006. |
Just days after celebrating his 21st birthday, Elliott was awarded the Sunoco Rookie of the Year title at the NASCAR NMPA Myers Brothers 2016 Awards Luncheon.
"I'm just so proud of everyone at Hendrick Motorsports for everything they do," Elliott said. "The Nos. 5 and 24 shops, those guys worked so hard throughout this season to give us the best race cars they could give so very proud of that. I truthfully feel at home after we have a year under our belts and racing with these guys, racing in the Cup Series, racing with the No. 24 team, I feel at home, which I think goes a long way."
Elliott, with crew chief Alan Gustafson and the rest of the No. 24 Chevrolet SS team, led an impressive rookie campaign that resulted in a 10th-place finish in the season standings.
The driver logged 10 top-five finishes, 17 top-10s and led a total of 358 laps throughout the 36-race season.
The 21-year-old also claimed two pole positions at Daytona International Speedway in February and Talladega Superspeedway in May.
Elliott also became the second driver to make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup as a rookie (Denny Hamlin did it first in 2006.
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