DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Two former NASCAR Cup Series champions took the white flag signaling one lap to-go in Sunday’s 68th Daytona 500 in position to perhaps at last add Daytona 500 champion to their already accomplished racing résumés.
And in a blink of an eye, both Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski were instead collected in a multi-car crash and finished the day at the Daytona International Speedway AdventHealth Medical Center in the infield instead of the track’s famous victory lane. Both of them were OK physically but frustrated having to salvage top-five finishes in the biggest race of the season – the major Crown Jewel event that has “just” eluded them – 10 times for Elliott and now 17 times for Keselowski.
Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet patiently and methodically moved forward in the closing laps, avoiding several big multi-car accidents in the second half of the race to put himself in position to make a run at NASCAR’s most celebrated trophy.
While maintaining a spot in the lead pack of cars – even leading a lap with five laps to go – the 2020 series champ was collected in a multi-car accident about 100 yards from the checkered flag. Riley Herbst’s No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota barely clipped Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet but was enough to collect other cars and launch Elliott’s car across Daytona’s famed finish line.
It was good enough for a fourth-place finish, Elliott’s third top-10 and best work in the Daytona 500 since a runner-up effort in 2021.
“Obviously looking back, you could run it through your mind a thousand times, do you do something different — I feel like if I had thrown a double block on the 45 [race winner Tyler Reddick], probably would have just crashed us at that point in time,” Elliott said of the front pack’s frantic bob-and-weave toward the checkered flag.
“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.
“Appreciate all the effort. …thought we had a good Speedweeks down here. Obviously hate to — 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.”
Keselowski came into the race already in recovery from a broken leg he suffered in an offseason incident at a ski resort. Sunday night he came out of the Infield Care Center leaning on the cane he’s used all weekend – and aggravated at the field’s aggression on that final run to the checkered as well.
Although he did not lead a lap Sunday, the 2012 series champion put himself in position to be in contention in the closing laps and was visibly frustrated by the turn of events and also being collected in the multi-accident triggered by Herbst.
“A lot of chaos,” Keselowski said of the final push.
“The 35 [Herbst] just wrecked me out of nowhere for no reason. That was one of the dumbest things I’ve seen. He had no chance of blocking my run. I had a huge run. I don’t know if I could have gotten the 45 (race winner Tyler Reddick) or the 47 (runner-up, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) but I would have liked to have found out because my run was coming fast and the 35 just wrecked us and himself.
“Pretty stupid!” he added, noting that Herbst block wasn’t just one lane, but three lanes coming up from the bottom of the track. “To wreck yourself and everybody else is just stupid. Very, very stupid.”
“Tore up the 9 (Elliott), tore up the 22 (Logano), a bunch of cars that didn’t deserve to be wrecked, so that was a big bummer and really stupid,” Keselowski added of the finish. “Still a decent day for us to come home with a top-five and to be competitive and have a shot to win.”
As for his injury, Keselowski said, he felt “great” and “couldn’t feel it” while in the car and was actually – on some level – heartened that it was tested with the crash.
“I felt really good in the car and felt really good getting through the crash,” Keselowski said. “I’m proud to make it this far. A few weeks ago, I didn’t know if I’d be able to run this race. To get to run the race and have an opportunity to win it feels pretty good, just disappointed not to bring it home.”
The fifth-place showing for Keselowski was his third top-five in 17 career Daytona 500 starts and first since a third-place showing in 2014 after being collected in accidents in six of the last 10 Daytona 500s.
“I felt good about just being in position, for sure,” he said. “At the end it’s a roll of the dice and who’s going to making good moves or bad moves and the dice didn’t roll our way.”