Chase Elliott’s NASCAR cup series race on Sunday, April 25 at the Talladega Superspeedway was marked by multiple collisions that resulted in a 23rd place finish for the Dawsonville driver. 

After finishing third in Stage One, Elliott continued to fight for the lead until lap 84 when a slow pit stop found Elliott reentering the race without the rest of the pack, losing any speed he might have gained. 

Elliott barely remained on the lead lap in 34th place until a yellow caution flag on lap 104 brought him back to the leaders. Racing intensified towards the end of Stage Two and several of the leaders made contact with one another on the final lap of the stage. The accident sent Elliott spinning across the front stretch and pushed him back to 27th to end the stage. 

After repairs had been made during a number of pit stops before the start of the final stage, Elliott climbed all the way up to 12th place in the race with 38 laps to go. 

Elliott took a green-flag pit stop along with the leaders on lap 154, but another driver hit Elliott causing rear damage to his car. The number nine team could never get Elliott’s car back up to speed and he finished the Geico 500 in 24th place. 

The finish drops Elliott into 11th place of the NASCAR Playoff Standings. In Nascar’s tenth race of the 2021 season, Brad Keselowski became the ninth separate winner to win a race. 

All nine of the winners and Denny Hamlin sit ahead of Elliott in the standings. 

On Sunday, May 2, Elliott will return to the track at the Kansas Speedway to try for his first win of the season. Elliott has one career win at Kansas in October 2018 and has finished inside the top 10 in five of the last seven races. Sunday’s race starts at 3 p.m.