Elliott knows nothing is guaranteed in the Daytona 500

Chase Elliott's decade of experience in the Daytona 500 has taught him that winning his Thursday night qualifying race has its benefits, but there is still plenty of work to do.

“I’m experienced enough to know not to get ahead of yourself with any of that, for sure,” Elliott told a small group of reporters Friday at Daytona International Speedway. “It’s a tough one, right? Because it is a great way to start the way, and it was a nice warmup. I thought we executed a really good race, and that’s always positive. But the biggest takeaway, honestly, is the pit pick.

“The rest of it changed my life zero percent. So, the pit pick is really what it’s all about because you have to live with that all day on Sunday, and Sunday is what we want. That’s all that matters to us.”

It was the third qualifying race Elliott has won in Daytona. He did so in the second race of the evening, which went caution-free.

In the aftermath of the accomplishment, the Hendrick Motorsports driver admitted he was thinking more about Sunday’s main event and what the No. 9 team could do better—especially as it pertains to pit road, which has hindered the team “more times” than they’d like at Daytona.

Elliott was also quick to mention as much about the bigger picture after winning his qualifying race. He made note of how he’s given a winning interview there before, but not for the Daytona 500.

In his 10 previous starts, Elliott has finished inside the top 10 just twice. The closest he’s come to winning the event was in 2021, when he finished second behind Michael McDowell after a crash on the last lap determined the outcome.

So, yes, Elliott has been here and experienced it all. There is nothing that can happen before race day that is going to make him feel any differently about his chances this time around.

“It’s all about Sunday,” he said. “They give away some points [in the duels], but they give 10 stage points away at the first stage, too. So there will be a lot of those throughout the year that, if we do a good job, we’ll be able to gather if it didn’t work out in the other scenario.

“Yeah, it’s all about Sunday.”

Elliott, who has a Cup Series championship on his resume and remains NASCAR’s undisputed most popular driver, does not have a crown jewel race win. The Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, Brickyard 400 and Southern 500 are the races with those distinctions, and like Daytona, it has not been a lack of effort that has kept Elliott from those triumphs.

The majority of Elliott’s wins have come on traditional intermediates (10) and road courses (7). As for superspeedways, he has four wins split between a pair at Talladega Superspeedway and the EchoPark Speedway hybrid.

“It used to be you’d come down here, and we were fortunate to be in that spot where, like I remember 2018, [we had] a really fast car,” said Elliott of what stands out about his car this week. “I knew it. Everybody in the duels knew it. The first part of the [Daytona 500] race knew it. Those things were apparent from a driver’s perspective. It wasn’t sometimes things you could put to words, but you just knew like, ‘Hey that guy and that car are going to be a difference maker.’

“That is just not really much of a thing anymore. It’s all circumstantial. Who’s pushing? How do your lanes go or don’t go? The fuel mileage thing is definitely here to stay. Props to [crew chief Alan Gustaftson] and our group. It was a lot more fun when there were about three of us who knew that was going on in like 2022. I think everyone quickly caught onto that, but those were fun. The spring Talladega in ’22 and stuff, we were kind of on top at that time. It was different. It’s changed now that everyone is trying to do that versus only a handful of cars taking advantage of it throughout the race.”

The qualifying race win puts Elliott on the outside of the second row for Sunday’s race. It is Elliott’s first top-five starting spot in the Daytona 500 since 2024.