Chase Elliott reacts to wrecking out at Daytona in 'big one'

It didn’t take long for the “big one” to occur during Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway. It came during Lap 59, and collected several race favorites, including Chase Elliott.

Elliott, one of 17 drivers involved in the wreck, is done racing for the night as a result of the damage his No. 9 Chevrolet sustained. Speaking with NBC Sports after being checked and released from the infield care center, Elliott recapped his disappointing night.

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“I saw smoke and I was so far in the back of the pack at that point, I was just trying to slow down and hope nobody hits me from behind,” Elliott said. “Unfortunately, neither one of those things happened. It’s a bummer, I hate it, but we were really just riding. I think everybody was just trying to get through the stage. … Definitely a bummer. I hate it for everyone involved. Obviously gonna have to go and have a really good week next week but we’ve been pretty lucky these last few plate races, so we were overdue unfortunately.”

Chase Elliott has extremely rare DNF at Daytona

Elliott will remain winless at Daytona in his highly decorated career. Remarkably, this is the first race this season Elliott has failed to finish. Entering Saturday’s race, Elliott had run all but one of 6,438 laps this season.

He entered the race just 10 points back of Tyler Reddick for the points lead, and he’ll remain behind Reddick going into Darlington next Sunday. Reddick was also involved in the wreck, as was Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and William Byron to name a few.