| Christian Elder | |
| Birth Name: | Christian Stuart Elder |
| Birth Date: | 6 December 1968 |
| Best Busch Pos: | 39th (2001) |
| First Busch Race: | 2001 Sam's Town 300 (Las Vegas) |
| Last Busch Race: | 2002 Stacker 2/GNC Live Well 250 (Daytona) |
| Years In Busch: | 2 |
| Total Busch Races: | 24 |
| Busch Wins: | 0 |
| Busch Top Tens: | 0 |
| Busch Poles: | 0 |
Christian Stuart Elder (December 6, 1968 - August 12, 2007) was an American racing driver. He raced in the Busch Series for Akins Motorsports for two years. His best finish of the year was 26th at Kentucky.
Elder made his debut in 2001, running his first race at Las Vegas for Akins where he started the race in 32nd, and he finished 23rd. In sixteen starts, he managed two top-20s (a pair of 20ths at Bristol and Dover). In 2002, Elder began running races for Akins full-time. A serious crash in qualifying at Chicagoland Speedway ended his Busch career.
Elder has competed in the ARCA series, Star Mazda Series, Speed World Challenge Series, Busch Series and NASCAR Goody's Dash Series which Elder competed in and won races at Daytona and Lowe's Motor Speedway. He also had a pole position at Bristol Motor Speedway.
During qualifying for a race at Chicagoland Speedway, Elder lost control of his car at turns three and four, causing his car to shoot up the track and hit the wall extremely hard, slamming the car's right side past the windshield, badly wrinkling the whole side of the car. He suffered a concussion and a broken collar bone. Track rescue workers had to cut him out of the race car and Elder was transported to a nearby hospital. The crash ended his NASCAR career.
Elder died at his home in Cornelius, North Carolina, on Sunday, August 12, 2007, due to accidental methadone toxicity, caused by mixing up pills he was taking due to his accident. At the time of his death, Elder was a project manager for Elder-Jones, Inc. in Charlotte, North Carolina.
(key) (
Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)| NASCAR Busch Series results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Year | Team | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | Pts | Ref | |||
| 2001 | Akins Motorsports | 38 | Ford | DAY DNQ | CAR | LVS 23 | ATL 26 | DAR | BRI 20 | TEX | NSH | TAL 26 | CAL 24 | RCH | NHA | NZH 28 | CLT 37 | DOV 20 | KEN 24 | MLW | GLN | CHI 29 | GTY 30 | PPR | IRP | MCH | BRI 35 | DAR | RCH | DOV | KAN 27 | CLT 40 | MEM | PHO 28 | CAR | HOM 43 | 39th | 1228 | [1] | |||
| 2002 | DAY 36 | CAR 37 | LVS 38 | DAR | BRI | TEX 31 | NSH | TAL 43 | CAL 43 | RCH | NHA | NZH | CLT | DOV | NSH | KEN 26 | MLW | DAY 29 | CHI INQ† | GTY | PPR | IRP | MCH | BRI | DAR | RCH | DOV | KAN | CLT | MEM | ATL | CAR | PHO | HOM | 58th | 455 | [2] | |||||
| † - Qualified, but received career-ending injuries in a qualifying crash, and was replaced by Mark Green | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||