NASCAR: 10 future Hall of Famers among 2020 drivers

Future NASCAR Hall of Famers: #10 – Chase Elliott

Chase Elliott is only five years into his NASCAR Cup Series career. But let’s look beyond the current generation of future Hall of Famers, because surely the inductions won’t stop there.

No, he is not there yet. But I also don’t think I’m jumping the gun here. Talent-wise, and based particularly on what he achieved in 2020, Elliott is a sure Hall of Fame bet if he can continue at the pace he has been on since finally notching his first career victory back in August of 2018 during his third season as a full-time driver.

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He also has the Dale Earnhardt Jr. effect going for him as NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver, and at 25 years old, he is already at nearly half of Earnhardt’s career win total. Earnhardt is a first-ballot member of the Hall of Fame Class of 2021.

Let’s also not forget his road course dominance. Already, no active drivers have won more road course races than Elliott has throughout their entire careers. Elliott, meanwhile, secured his first five road course wins in a matter of 26 months, including four in a row at three different venues. He is already arguably the greatest driver of all-time on courses with right turns.

Earnhardt, a first ballot Hall of Famer, won 26 races throughout his career and won 15 consecutive Most Popular Driver Awards before retiring at the end of the 2017 season, and Elliott has been the clear most popular driver ever since then, winning the award in each of the last three seasons.

Elliott entered the 2020 season as one of only two drivers in this article who had not won a championship. But although he is more than 15 years younger than that other driver, he was able to secure last year’s title to become the third youngest champion in Cup Series history — and the most popular champion since his father Bill won the 1988 championship.

Additionally, at the end of the day, future Hall of Famers will come from somewhere. Elliott is clearly leading that next generation, and his ascension to the top came before many had anticipated.

How many of the 10 drivers discussed in this article will be NASCAR Hall of Famers, and how many will be first-ballot Hall of Famers?