HAMPTON, Ga. — Chase Elliott won the pole for the Daytona 500, won his qualifying race, led 39 laps and was in the lead in the closing laps of the Daytona 500. Unfortunately, destiny was not in his favor.
With four laps to go, Elliott’s fuel cell ran dry, resulting in a 14th-place finish. He left the track without addressing the media, rather than take his frustration out on them.
The following week in Atlanta, Elliott said it “was a devastating way to end a good week” considering he “had such a great car down there (Daytona).” He said there were two things to look at when he thought of Daytona.
“A. We had to play the cards we were dealt. I felt like we planned to the best of our ability. I think that is something to be proud of. B. We ran out of gas.”
He said it’s easy to say the Daytona 500 win was “his to lose,” but he was still short of the fuel window to make it. So for him “to sit back and think that we had it locked down is kind of foolish.”
“For us, it’s disappointing for sure, but there are some positives to take from the day and again,” Elliott said, “We were faced with circumstances that we really couldn’t control and I felt like we played what we had the best we could. Somedays that is all you can do.”
Elliott is no stranger to coming up short. Last season, he blew late restarts at Pocono, Michigan (twice) and Chicagoland.
However, Elliott said losing Daytona 500 in the closing laps wasn’t especially painful. “It’s just “kind of the same deal,” he said.
“At Chicago, faced with a caution there at the end of the race, I don’t really know what we could have done about that and I really don’t know what you do about running out of gas with just a couple of laps to go either. In both of those cases, I felt like from a performance side I thought we did a good job and we were close, just not close enough. I don’t know. I don’t know that it really changes my complexion or outlook on how I view things. It’s definitely a disappointing finish to a good day.”
