For much of the final lap of the 2026 Daytona 500, Chase Elliott appeared to be in a position to achieve his first Daytona 500 victory. Instead, Elliott’s hopes of winning evaporated just shy of the finish line as a final lap carnage relegated him to a top-five result.
The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion from Dawsonville, Georgia, endured a strong Daytona Speedweeks that commenced by being the ninth-fastest competitor following Wednesday’s pole qualifying run. Elliott’s chances of winning Sunday’s Daytona 500 grew stronger when he won the second America 250 Florida Duel event. The Duel victory awarded Elliott the fourth-place starting spot for the main event.
Throughout the first stage period, Elliott spent a bulk of it racing towards the front and dicing with his fellow competitors. After pitting under green before the first stage’s conclusion, Elliott settled in 18th place. He would finish in 18th place for a second consecutive time, this time following the second stage period despite dodging two multi-car wrecks.
Restarting in eighth place at the start of the final stage period with 65 laps remaining, Elliott battled towards the front for the majority of the stage. Despite getting shuffled towards the midpack region following his final green-flag pit stop for fuel with less than 15 laps remaining, an opportunity presented itself for Elliott when a caution that flew with nine laps remaining jumbled up the field for a four-lap shootout.
Restarting in 15th place during the shootout, Elliott then capitalized on final lap spins that knocked out the leaders, Carson Hocevar and Michael McDowell, to bolt to the front with drafting help from Zane Smith. After battling both Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Tyler Reddick for the lead amid a three-wide battle through the first two turns, Elliott received another draft from Smith from the outside lane to storm ahead through the backstretch.
Elliott proceeded to lead through the backstretch and Turns 3 and 4 before he got separated from Smith. With Reddick reeling in, Elliott was unable to block Reddick’s crossover move to the left that allowed the latter to get underneath the former towards the double yellow line. At the same time, Riley Herbst, who was drafting Reddick, made his move to the right of Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry as Elliott was also unable to block Herbst.
Then, after Herbst and Brad Keselowski made contact against the outside wall, Herbst veered back to the left, clipped and sent Elliott head-on into the wall. Despite the hard impact, Elliott managed to limp his damaged entry to a fourth-place result and emerge as the highest-finishing Hendrick Motorsports competitor of the 2026 Cup opener.
Elliott’s fourth-place finish marks his third top-10 career result and second in the top-five mark in the Daytona 500. The 2026 season marked Elliott’s 11th attempt at joining his father, Bill, as a champion of the Great American Race, with the former achieving back-to-back pole positions during his first two starts (2016-17).
Despite racking up no stage points between the first two stages, Elliott is ranked in third place in the standings with 43 points as he continues his season-long pursuit to make the Chase and contend for a second Cup Series championship.
“We ended up getting gifted the lead, and [Smith] and I had got out by ourselves down the back,” Elliott said in the infield care center on FOX. “He had given me a good shove off into [Turn] 3, and then it was kind of just he and I, and at that point, I just felt momentum shift, like there was going to be another run coming behind us there at some point. Unfortunately, that was accurate, and then at that point in time, you’re just on defense. Man, that’s a really, really tough place to be, truthfully.”
“I feel like if I had thrown a double block on [Reddick], probably would have just crashed us at that point in time.” Elliott added, “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.”
Chase Elliott’s 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season continues next Sunday, February 22, for the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. The event’s broadcast time is slated to commence at 3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
