A NASCAR waiver for Chase Elliott? Probably, but dad Bill Elliott got hosed | KEN WILLIS

At least Chase likely has a better story to tell. Assuming he ever tells it.

Bill Elliott, Chase’s dad, not so much.

Awesome Bill from Dawsonville, the hot-rodding Huck Finn from the North Georgia hills, pushed NASCAR’s speedometers to the point of major rule changes. Along the way, he became Million Dollar Bill, and fame was attached to him and somewhere in the midst of it all, Bill found himself owning a home in Vail and became quite enamored with the Colorado ski slopes.

Those lodges are a long way from the Dawsonville Pool Room, by the way.

Bill became a lover of the Colorado powder, which obviously explains son Chase’s lifelong infatuation with that wonderful hobby (and lifestyle, if you can swing it). Bill, however, never missed work due to a skiing injury.

He missed seven races in 1996 after breaking a thigh bone in a nasty Talladega wreck. That’s racin’, you know.

But Bill also missed a couple of races four years later for a non-racing injury. Broken knee cap.

Didn’t do it on snow. Not dirt-biking, hiking, falling off a tractor or horse.

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Nope Awesome Bill tripped over a garden hose in his garage.

Garden hose!

Chase Elliott missing NASCAR races isn't the same as it would've been in Bill's day

He missed two high-profile weekends — Bristol’s night race and the Southern 500 — but it carried no big-picture problems because Bill was sitting 16^th in points at the time, and 16^th place didn’t mean what it does these days with the 16-team playoffs awaiting in the fall.

Miss multiple races back then, sponsors were disappointed, your fans were disappointed, and any championship hopes were dashed because it was a season-long accumulation of points and you couldn’t give away huge chunks to the competition.

In Chase’s day, however, as in the here and now, you can miss several races and still become the season’s champ — Kyle Busch in 2015 is the prime example. He won it even though NASCAR rules say a playoff driver, regardless of winning a race or multiple races, must be top 30 in points at regular-season’s end, and must have attempted to enter each race along the way.

Kyle’s serious leg injuries came in a NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the start of the season, and therefore he was rightly granted a waiver.

However … or, actually, HOWEVER, Chase’s current malady was delivered in much different fashion, and onlookers are curiously watching to see when NASCAR’s waiver verdict arrives, and what it says.

A racing injury, many say, is one thing. A snowboarding injury is quite different, and don’t think imagery doesn’t play a role in some folks’ opinions.

If Chase had fallen off a deer stand, lost a toe chopping wood for heat, or gotten kicked by the family mule … well, that’s different. But hopping a private (we assume) jet to hob-knob with the Other Half in ski country, and come home in a cast? During the racing season?

That leaves a lot of old race fans scratching their officially licensed NAPA caps.

In the end, expect NASCAR to make Chase Elliott playoff-eligible (if he wins)

“Let them live their lives” seems to be the most prevailing afterthought to this episode, and that’s a good thing.

But that won’t stop the always-coiled critics who are ready to lash out and shout favoritism when NASCAR grants a waiver to its most popular current racer.

And they will do that, right? If Chase recovers in due time, returns and picks off a win or three before late August, he’s certainly a playoff-caliber driver with a championship-caliber team.

You shouldn’t punish a driver and team for what we assume to be an unfortunate accident — even if it came in a hobby where the odds carry higher risks.

The overriding opinion from insiders seems to be a “yes” to the waiver. NASCAR, when the time comes, should agree with that and not punish a driver and, just as importantly, his team for one of life’s unfortunate events.

And not that they’ll need a tie-breaker, but if they do, there’s this: He’s Chase Elliott, for Pete’s sake!

— Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Chase Elliott should get NASCAR waiver; dad Bill got hosed | KEN WILLIS