NASCAR Cup Series star Chase Elliott shared in a social media post Friday that he underwent a procedure to address an existing shoulder injury, and that he planned to be physically ready for the start of the 2024 season. Elliott's shoulder surgery comes after a 2023 season that was derailed by a broken leg he suffered in an off-track incident.
While Elliott didn't specify the exact nature of his shoulder injury or how it happened, he shared that the injury was an "old" one that needed to be addressed. This marks the second medical procedure the 2020 Cup Series champion has undergone this year, as he previously had surgery to repair a fractured tibia suffered in a snowboarding accident early in the season.
"Obviously, the offseason is a much better time to do that than my last surgery," Elliott said. "Everything is all good, ready to go for 2024. Certainly looking forward to the Daytona 500 coming up in February."
Little life update.. pic.twitter.com/f6tKODUsfw
— Chase Elliott (@chaseelliott) November 17, 2023
One year after nearly winning his second Cup title in 2022, Elliott's entire 2023 season was set back when he fractured his leg while snowboarding in Colorado prior to the third race of the year in Las Vegas. Elliott would miss the next six races while he recovered, and the seven races he missed in total -- Elliott was suspended for one race after intentionally wrecking Denny Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600 -- created too large a points deficit for Elliott to make the playoffs without a victory.
Elliott would go winless for the first time since 2017 and finish a career-worst 17th in the final Cup Series standings, but he salvaged a decent statistical year with seven top fives, 15 top 10s and a best finish of second on two occasions. Elliott's average finish of 13.1 was the fifth best in NASCAR among full-time drivers.
