Chase Elliott could see the finish line of the 2026 Daytona 500. He was running up front and feet away from taking his first checkered flag in The Great American Race on Sunday. He was in perfect position — until he wasn’t.
When the white flag flew signaling the last lap of the NASCAR Cup Series season-opening race, Elliott in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was running 10th amid several three-wide rows. But as race leaders Carson Hocevar, Michael McDowell and Erik Jones began wrecking, a path opened for Elliott on the outside lane.
As they exited Turn 2, Elliott and Zane Smith in the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford behind him had momentum, and Elliott cruised down the backstrech out front.
“I’m not really sure what happened with the first wreck,” Elliott told FOX Sports’ Josh Sims after the race. “That’s a little further around. But we ended up kind of getting gifted the lead, and [No.] 38 and I had got out by ourselves down the back.
“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.”
In the final two turns, Tyler Reddick popped out from behind Smith and found the outside lane behind Elliott, who threw a block to maintain the lead.
But when Reddick in the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota slid down to the inside lane to fight Elliott for the lead, the cars behind them began wrecking.
They collected NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver, as Reddick took the checkered flag, delivering a win for team owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, who finished 31st in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Elliott was credited with a fourth-place finish.
“At that point in time, you’re just on defense,” Elliott told Sims. “Man, that’s a really, really tough place to be, truthfully. 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 [Reddick], probably would have just crashed us at that point in time.
“So 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. … This really sucks to be that close and come off Turn 4 with the lead and not finish it off. But that’s part of this event, and unfortunately we were on the bad end of it today.”
Elliott’s quest to win his first Daytona 500 will have to wait another year.
