Chase Elliott Suffers Another Gut-Wrenching Daytona 500 Collapse

He's been close at Daytona before, but this one… this one has to hurt the most for Chase Elliott — NASCAR's Most Popular Driver for nearly a decade now. 

Leading coming off Turn 4. Checkered flag in sight. A few hundred feet from a Daytona 500 triumph. 

And he was a sitting duck. 

The worst place to be at the end of a Daytona 500, they say, is out front. Chase Elliott learned that the hard way on Sunday. He's been so close, so many times before. He's a NASCAR champion. A sure-fire Hall of Famer when the time comes. 

But the Daytona 500? Chase has never won it. He's been close. Never won it. This was his moment. His time. Chase was finally in the right place, at the right time, when the proverbial sh*t hit the fan coming to the white flag. 

Elliott took the lead on the final lap, and held it for the next three turns. And then? 

Chaos. Predictable chaos:

More Daytona 500 Heartbreak For Chase Elliott

"I felt momentum shift," Elliott said. "There was another run coming behind us, and, unfortunately, that was accurate. At that point in time, you're on defense. It's a tough place to be."

The Daytona 500 has done this to dozens of drivers over the years. Probably more. This is how it goes, right? 

This is the 25th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt's death at Daytona. He tried — and failed — for DECADES to win a Daytona 500. There's a reason the entire field congratulated him when he finally won it in 1998. 

It feels like Chase Elliott is on that course, doesn't it? The sport's most popular driver, by a loooooooooooong mile. He's won a championship. He's won over 20 races. He's in the best car, for the best team, every single year. 

And yet, he cannot win a Daytona 500. And it's not even that he can't win. It's that his losses are brutal. Heartbreaking. Tough to watch. 

This was the closest Chase has come since 2017, when he probably should've won as well. Remember that? It was a fuel mileage race with Kyle Larson, and Elliott was leading with five to go. 

He ran out of gas. That was tough. This one, though? Brutal. 

"We were gifted the lead, and it was the 38 and I by ourselves," he said. "You have to pick your battle here. This really sucks, to be that close, coming off Turn 4 with the lead and not being able to finish it off. 

"It's part of this event. Unfortunately, we were on the bad end of it today."

Elliott will be fine. There's a good chance he'll go on to win at Atlanta next week. He'll undoubtedly be in the championship mix this fall. He could very well win another championship. If not this year, then at some point down the road. 

But for now? For tonight? For this Daytona 500? 

Heartbreak. 

Again.