Chase Elliott finished 12th at the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday night. 

Elliott found himself starting in the 39th position after failing his pre-race inspection twice. However, he had no trouble moving his car back to the middle of the race, rising to 22nd place after the first caution flag. 

Going to pit road late in stage one allowed Elliott to stay out on the track at the beginning of stage 2. This put him in 6th place at the start of the second stage and he was able to stay in the top 10 throughout the remainder of the stage, finishing seventh. 

After a ten-car pile up during the final stage, Elliott was able to move into third and pushed friend and fellow driver Ryan Blaney into a strong lead at lap 251. 

With 47 laps to go, Elliott was the first of all racers to enter the pit. The move ended up not paying off for the Dawsonville native after three cautions were called in the final twenty laps of the race. The last caution ended with only two laps left and Elliott was able to pass two more drivers to finish in 12th place. 

Following the race results, fellow Cup Series driver Joey Logano finished the race third and passed Elliott in the standings. 

The Nascar Cup Series will return this Thursday night in the Super Start Batteries 400 at Kansas Speedway.