NASCAR favorite Chase Elliott is coming to Wisconsin's Slinger Speedway to race next month

Seven years and a Cup title after a last-minute change of plans kept Chase Elliott from racing in the Slinger Nationals, NASCAR’s five-time most-popular driver says this year’s the year.

Elliott announced Thursday on social media he would race in the 44th edition of the Nationals on July 11 at Slinger Speedway.

Elliott, who won the NASCAR Cup Series crown in 2020 and Xfinity title in 2014, becomes the second NASCAR Cup champion in the event following Matt Kenseth, the 2003 champion and also all-time leader in Nationals victories with eight.

The Nationals is one of the premier super late model events in the country.

The 27-year-old son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott has been racing short track stock cars since he was 13, although he didn’t get into super late models – the premier asphalt cars in the upper Midwest – for several years.

As Elliott has when he won the prestigious Snowball Derby, All-American 400 and Winchester 400, he plans to race with crew chief Ricky Turner, who runs his team out of Elliott’s hometown of Dawsonville, Georgia, said Slinger Speedway owner Todd Thelen.

Elliott was supposed to race in the Nationals in 2016, his rookie season in the Cup Series, but pulled out due to what was termed an “unforeseen sponsor commitment,” although he still attended, served as grand marshal and participated in a paid meet-and greet.

Nonetheless, he has won in Wisconsin. Elliott took the Cup Series Jockey 250 at Road America in 2021. He also has raced at Madison International Speedway in the ARCA national series and at the Milwaukee Mile with the Midwest Tour.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: NASCAR's Chase Elliott to race Slinger Speedway Nationals on July 11