Chase Elliott finishes fourth in heartbreaking end to Daytona 500

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Chase Elliott fans will have nightmares about the ending of Sunday’s Daytona 500 for a long time. 

NASCAR’s most popular driver took the white flag in 10th, the third car back on the high line. As the field approached Turn 1, leader Carson Hocevar was turned into the wall by Erik Jones, which sent them as well as Michael McDowell spinning. This opened the door wide open for Elliott. 

The No.9 car surged to the lead, bringing a pack of seven other cars with him that separated itself from the remainder of the field. As the field entered turn three, it looked like the push of Zane Smith was going to set up a sprint to the finish between the No.9 and No.38 cars. 

Then, Tyler Reddick, with a push from teammate Riley Herbst, surged past Smith, leaving Elliott with no help. The No.45 car then moved its way past Elliott about 100 yards from the line, snatching Daytona 500 glory in shocking fashion. 

Elliott smashed the wall head on and crossed the finish line in a cloud of smoke and sparks, coming home fourth. 

“Obviously looking back, you can run it through your mind 1,000 times, do you do something different — I feel like if I had thrown a double block on the 45, probably would have just crashed us at that point in time,” Elliott said.

“I felt like you had to pick your battles. I thought maybe if somebody would pick me up on the top, you might have one more run to the line, but unfortunately ended up getting turned around.”

Overall it was a solid points weekend for the No.9 team. A 33-point day in the 500 as well as the 10 additional points for winning the duel on Thursday night leaves Elliott 3rd in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings heading to Atlanta. 

It’s not Elliott’s first heartbreaker in the Daytona 500. In the 2021 race, Elliott finished second when the caution came out on the final lap. Had the caution came a second or two later, Elliott would have been declared the winner. 

Fans of the No. 9 team won’t have to wait long to have a good shot at redemption. 

With Atlanta looming next week, Elliott will look to make it back to back wins at Atlanta, having won the summer race under the lights in his home state. The Autotrader 400 from Echopark Speedway is set for next Sunday at 3 P.M. ET on FOX.