By ,
Published February 05, 2015
Concord, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - The Nationwide Series runs its 11th race of the season on Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Rookie Chase Elliott holds just a two-point lead over Regan Smith, his teammate at JR Motorsports, and Elliott Sadler. Last Sunday at Iowa, Smith finished third, while Elliott was fourth and Sadler fifth. Sam Hornish Jr., driving a part-time Nationwide schedule for Joe Gibbs Racing this season, won the race.
Elliott has two wins this season -- Texas and Darlington. He has held the points lead for each race since his victory at Texas.
"I definitely know it's early on in the year, and there's so much racing to go, and everybody knows that," Elliott said. "We have to make sure we keep our heads where they need to be, just have to make sure we keep on the right track. We will continue to get better, because that's what our competition is doing right now."
Elliott is the 18-year-old son of Bill Elliott, who was elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2015 earlier this week, along with Fred Lorenzen, Wendell Scott, Joe Weatherly and Rex White.
This will be the first time Elliott competes in a NASCAR national touring series race at Charlotte.
Smith has finished no worse than 10th in the first 10 races this season. He won the season-opener at Daytona.
"Things have been going well for our team," Smith said. "I think once we got through those first few races of the season, we've really seen things start coming together. Thanks to a solid run at Iowa, we're still right there in the hunt of the points, which is good considering we haven't run as great as we want to through the first nine races or so."
Smith has seven Nationwide starts at this 1.5-mile racetrack, with his best finish of fifth coming in May 2007. He also has nine Sprint Cup starts and one in the Camping World Truck Series here.
Sadler has scored top-10 finishes in the last six races, including a victory at Talladega. His best finish in 14 Nationwide starts at Charlotte is second, which occurred in October 2005.
Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson are those Sprint Cup Series regulars scheduled to compete in the History 300. Busch holds the record for most Nationwide wins at Charlotte with eight. He scored a season-sweep here last year.
Series: NASCAR Nationwide. Date: Saturday, May 24. Race: History 300. Site: Charlotte Motor Speedway. Track: 1.5-mile oval. Start time: 2:45 p.m. ET. Laps: 200. Miles: 300. 2013 Winner: Kyle Busch. Television: ABC. Radio: Performance Racing Network (PRN)/SIRIUS NASCAR Radio.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/nationwide-points-battle-moves-on-to-charlotte