Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet, endured the tumultuous closing laps of Saturday night’s Subway Firecracker 250 at Daytona International Speedway to score a third-place finish. In would could only be described as a battle of attrition, Elliott saw his share of highs and lows throughout the event. But the team persevered, rebounding from several issues to secure Elliott’s seventh top-five finish of the season and best ever at a restrictor-plate track. More importantly, the effort vaulted Elliott to second in the NASCAR XFINTY Series championship points standings. He now sits only 34 markers behind leader Chris Buescher.
From the drop of the green flag, Elliott patiently settled into the draft. Early on, Elliott wheeled the No. 9 into the top line and continued a slow climb through the top 10. With a caution coming on lap 16, Elliott experienced his first setback of the evening when he was blocked in his pit stall by a competitor. A few moments earlier, crew chief Ernie Cope had made the call for a fuel only stop, but the team lost precious seconds and positions due to the incident. Elliott lined up for the following restart in 16th.
Once back to green-flag racing, Elliott worked the draft over the next 60 laps and found himself in seventh position with only 10 laps remaining. He was holding tight to the inside line when a handful of cars on his outside made contact, initiating a crash that missed the NAPA machine by inches. Despite the close call, Elliott emerged unscathed and took seventh for the ensuing restart.
When the field rumbled back to life, aggressive desperation governed the lead cars of Brian Scott and Elliott Sadler. With Sadler attempting a pass on the outside, Scott made a late move to block the advance and initiated a massive 11-car pileup. The crash sent the No. 0 of Harrison Rhodes across the front bumper of Elliott and forced the No. 9 into the infield grass where it received minor splitter damage.
Under the caution, Elliott brought the NAPA Chevy to pit road where the crew made minor repairs before giving the No. 9 four fresh tires. Elliott returned to track in third and would restart right behind leader Austin Dillon for the green-white-checked finish.
Elliott stayed glued to Dillon’s bumper and ran as high as second, but with minor damage, lacked the handling to make a charge on the top spot. Elliott stayed tucked in line coming to the stripe to finish third.
Dillon took home the checkered flag. Following Sadler and Elliott to the line were the cars of Kasey Kahne and Benny Gordon.
Chase Elliott, driver No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS team
“We’re fortunate to be on the better end of it tonight. Still got caught up in some wrecks, but we were better than we could have been. I’m happy that things halfway went our way tonight. Proud of everybody on our NAPA team that worked hard to get our car repaired right after we did get in that one wreck, and gave us a shot to get a top five.
“We definitely have to be on the offense now. The best way to gain points is to win races. We need to do that and I think we can. I think we’re on a good path. I like the ideas we have and the direction we’re headed. It’s good to get through this last plate race and have a top five. I think that was big for us because we’ve had such bad days [at Daytona] and Talladega. So, happy to get through this one. Definitely pleased with third and hopefully we can try to build and get some wins before it’s over with.”
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