Chase Elliott To Miss Race At Las Vegas After Snow Boarding Injury

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Fans who bought tickets to this weekend's NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas hoping to see Chase Elliott behind the wheel of the No. 9 car are going to be disappointed,

They're also going to wish he had stayed off the slopes.

On Friday evening, news broke that Elliott has sustained a leg injury while snowboarding in Colorado. Elliott — who has been voted NASCAR's most popular driver five years in a row — will have surgery on Friday night.

"Chase’s health is our primary concern," Rick Hendrick, owner of Elliott's team Hendrick Motorsports said in a statement. "He’s spoken with several members of our team and is understandably disappointed to miss time in the car. Of course, he has our full support, and we’ll provide any resources he needs. We hope to share another update later this weekend."

He'll be replaced by Josh Berry who drives full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports. Hopping in the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Camaro will mark Berry's third career Cup Series start.

Chase Elliott

Chase Elliott and his team have had an unlucky start to the weekend in Las Vegas. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)

Before this weekend, Elliott had never missed a start in his full-time Cup Series career which started in 2016. That's a total of 218 straight races. Over that span, Elliott has won 18 races and was the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion.

Through 2 races this season, Elliott currently sits 14th in the standings, 43 points behind leader Ross Chastain.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle

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Matt is a University of Central Florida graduate and a long-suffering Philadelphia Flyers fan living in Orlando, Florida. He can usually be heard playing guitar, shoe-horning obscure quotes from The Simpsons into conversations, or giving dissertations to captive audiences on why Iron Maiden is the greatest band of all time.