Chase Elliott has now competed in 11 consecutive Daytona 500 races without victory. The 2020 Cup Series champion has only three top-10 Daytona 500 finishes in his career, despite his father Bill Elliott winning the Great American Race and creating a legacy of pressure.
The Dawsonville, Georgia native appeared to have finally cracked the code on February 15, 2026. After restarting 15th with just four laps remaining in a shootout finish, Elliott executed a clinic in superspeedway drafting. He capitalized on wrecks that eliminated leaders Carson Hocevar and Michael McDowell, then used pushing help from Zane Smith to surge through a three-wide battle.
By the backstretch of the final lap, Elliott had separated himself from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Tyler Reddick, building what appeared to be a race-winning gap. But chaos has a way of finding the Daytona 500 leader on the final lap—and Riley Herbst’s desperation block on Brad Keselowski created the contact that sent Elliott spinning with the finish line in sight.
The statistical pain runs deep: Elliott’s fourth-place finish marks only his second top-five result in 11 Daytona 500 attempts. Meanwhile, Tyler Reddick joined an elite club of drivers who captured their first career Daytona 500 victory, giving 23XI Racing their breakthrough moment in NASCAR’s crown jewel event.
Jeff Gordon, now serving as Hendrick Motorsports’ vice-chairman, watched helplessly from the pit box as history slipped through Elliott’s fingers. Gordon’s animated frustration—throwing his hands skyward—captured the emotional devastation of a team that had executed a perfect final-lap strategy only to see it destroyed by circumstances beyond their control.
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