Last Lap Crash Dashes Daytona 500 Hopes for Elliott, Keselowski

February 15, 2026 David Morgan Cup, Headline News Comments Off on Last Lap Crash Dashes Daytona 500 Hopes for Elliott, Keselowski
Photo: Stephen A. Arce/ASP, Inc.
By David Morgan, Associate Editor

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – So close, but yet so far.

Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski have had the honor of calling themselves NASCAR Cup Series champions during their tenure in NASCAR’s premier division, but both still have one glaring omission from their resumes – a win in the Daytona 500.

On the white flag of Sunday’s 68th running of the Great American Race, both drivers had a shot at it, only to see the win fall from their grasp with the finish line in sight.

Elliott, the winner of eight-straight Most Popular Driver awards and the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, found himself in prime position when the seas parted in front of him as the race crossed under the white flag and he got a helping hand from the Ford of Zane Smith to boost him into the lead.

The 30-year-old hailing from Dawsonville, Georgia held the point all the way through Turn 4 when Tyler Reddick and teammate Riley Herbst made their run at Elliott with a head of steam, leaving him as a sitting duck, defenseless to block their charge.

Reddick was the first to pull the cross-over to power past Elliott, with Herbst attempting to make it three-wide in an ill-fated move in front of Keselowski, who was making a charge of his own in the outside lane.

Contact between Keselowski and Herbst would send Herbst into the outside wall, which in turn bounced him back down the track into Elliott, turning him around backwards, where he would finish the race in fourth place.

“We ended up kind of getting gifted the lead. The 38 and I had got out by ourselves down the back. He had given me a good shove off into Turn 3 and it was just kind of he and I. At that point, I felt the momentum shift like there was going to be another run coming behind us there at some point,” Elliott explained.

“Unfortunately, that was accurate. At that point in time, you’re just on defense and man, that’s a really, really tough place to be, truthfully. Obviously, looking back, you can run it through your mind a thousand times, do you do something different?

“I feel like if I had thrown a double block, the 45 would have just crashed us at that point in time. I feel like you kind of had to pick your battles because I thought maybe somebody would pick me up on the top and you might have one more run to the line. But unfortunately, I ended up getting turned around.

“…This really sucks to be that close. Coming off of Turn 4 with the lead and not finish it off, but that’s part of this event, you know? And unfortunately, we were on the bad end of it today.”

“Just Dumb-Assed Me into the Wall”

Keselowski overcame immense odds to even be at Daytona this weekend after breaking his femur over the offseason, but through pure grit and determination he was back in the seat of his No. 6 RFK Racing Ford on Sunday ready to finally add the Daytona 500 to his resume.

He may have been running fourth off Turn 4 in the final charge to the finish, but Keselowski has been here before enough times to know it’s not over until it’s over.

However, when Herbst made his errant merge, triggering the final melee of the evening to dash Keselowski’s chance at hoisting the Harley J. Earl Trophy, he took umbrage with the young driver’s seemingly unaware driving tactics on that final lap.

“Good and bad,” Keselowski said of the finish. “I’m happy we were so competitive today. From where I was even a few weeks ago to be able to run the race feels pretty good, but super disappointed. Had a big run off of Turn 4 and felt like I could have made a three-wide pass for the lead at the line and the 35 [Herbst] just dumb-assed me into the wall…

“Last restart I gave William Byron a great push, and just wasn’t enough to move our lane. I was giving him all I had, and then right here at the end I had this huge run and the 35 wrecked us. Really disappointed.

“Tore up the 9, tore up the 22, a bunch of cars that didn’t deserve to be wrecked, so that was a big bummer and really stupid.”

About David Morgan 1897 Articles
David Morgan is the Associate Editor for Motorsports Tribune. A 2008 graduate from the University of Mississippi, David has followed NASCAR since the early 90’s and became hooked at an early age after attending his first race at Talladega Superspeedway in 1993. He has traveled across the country since 2012 to cover some of the most prestigious events both IndyCar and NASCAR have to offer, with an aim to only expand on that in the near future.
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