COLUMBUS, Ohio – Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Aaron’s Dream Machine/Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet, will compete in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East event at Columbus Motor Speedway on July 21.

Elliott enters the Columbus race weekend ranked third in the 2012 championship standings, nine points behind leader Brett Moffitt. The 150-lap race will be broadcast on SPEED on Thursday, Aug. 2 at 3 p.m. ET.

Elliott has made one previous start at Columbus. In this K&N event last year at the .333-mile track, Elliott started eighth and consistently ran inside the top 10 the whole night. With 16 laps to go, Elliott was running ninth and aggressively drove his way into sixth by Lap 145. When the checkered flag waved on Lap 150, Elliott crossed the finish line sixth.

“It’s a unique place for sure,” Elliott said. “You don’t go to many tracks that don’t have a straightaway at all. Just the overview of Columbus, obviously you want the car to be handling the best you can get it, but hopefully the experience from last year’s K&N race will help us this weekend.”

Elliott, 16, has four top-five finishes and six top 10s in nine K&N Pro Series East races so far in his career at tracks that are a half-mile or smaller.

So far this season in eight K&N Pro Series East starts, Elliott has posted one win, three top-five finishes, six top 10s and led a total of 70 laps.

Elliott will participate in the K&N Pro Series East autograph session at Columbus Motor Speedway on July 21 at 8 p.m. local time. For race weekend updates, please follow Cindy Elliott on Twitter at www.twitter.com/CindyElliott9.