By David Morgan, Associate Editor
TALLADEGA, Ala. – For Chase Elliott to make it to the Championship 4 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, the math is simple with one race remaining in the Round of 8.
Win or go home.
Coming into Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet found himself 23 points below the cut-off line, needing a solid day to get back in the fight with Martinsville next up on the schedule to determine which drivers would join Denny Hamlin in the Championship 4.
Unfortunately for the 2020 Cup Series champion, the weekend went from bad to worse after starting in 25th place – the worst among the Playoff contenders.
On Lap 45, he would get swept up in a nine-car crash in Turn 3 when an errant bump from the No. 43 Toyota of Erik Jones sent Noah Gragson’s No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford for a spin, setting off a chain reaction crash behind them.
Along with Elliott, Jones, and Gragson, the crash would also involve Justin Haley, Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., A.J. Allmendinger, Chris Buescher, and Austin Cindric.
Elliott’s crew pushed his damaged NAPA Chevrolet to the garage in an attempt to repair it and get him back out, but the damage was too much and they would be retired from the race.
As a result, Elliott will be credited with a last place finish on the day, and putting him in must-win territory next Sunday.
There's trouble in Turn 3!@chaseelliott is among the cars collected. pic.twitter.com/tNc6D3Gdfh
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 19, 2025
“I have no idea,” Elliott said when asked what happened. “Just people get turned sideways. Tried to get slowed up and ended up in the middle of it. Unfortunate for sure, but makes things simple next week.”
Elliott explained that he could sense the energy in the pack ramping up towards the end of the first stage and contemplated backing out of it to stay out of the danger zone, but before he could, all hell broke loose.
“The energy was definitely picking up,” said Elliott. “Pretty much everything after the cycle was pretty crazy, so I wasn’t super surprised by it. Maybe I should have got out. I wasn’t going to get any points where I was. We were kind of right on that cusp of if your lane goes forward you might catch the back part of the top-10, but probably not worth the risk at the end of the day.
“Everybody was really wild from the get go. Even when we were saving, they were jumping it four-wide and doing things and getting a lot of confidence up that obviously didn’t go very far.
“I hate it. It sucks. I wish, looking back, I could have done something different, but it is what it is. I can’t change it. We’ll go to Martinsville and try to get a win.”
Elliott has made three prior appearances in the Championship 4, in 2020, 2021, and 2023. At Martinsville, Elliott has claimed one win (2020) and is currently on a streak of top-five finishes at the half-mile bullring dating back to the spring of 2024.
The Xfinity 500 at Martinsville is scheduled for 2:00 pm ET on NBC to cut the Playoff field down to the four drivers to race for the championship at Phoenix.
