DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Many people were surprised when Chase Elliott was 12th on the scoreboard at the end of Kroger Pole Night for the 63rd Daytona 500 on Wednesday.
After all, Elliott is a two-time Daytona 500 pole winner, and he’s coming off a season where he won the NASCAR Cup Series championship for the first time.
With those points in mind, Elliott was considered a favorite for the Busch Pole Award under the lights at Daytona Int’l Speedway. To see him as far down the speed charts as he was in qualifying was unexpected.
Elliott, however, wasn’t caught off guard.
He told SPEED SPORT following his qualifying run that his perceived “lack of speed” was more about a change in philosophy, where his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro team gave up a little bit of sheer speed in hopes of having a better handling car over 500 miles Sunday afternoon.
“I think, for us, we realized what’s really important … and that’s obviously Sunday and having our car driving well for the event,” said Elliott. “That’s where our head is and it would be nice to grab a pole; but at the end of the day, what does it really get you? We’re trying to be good on Sunday.”
Elliott is seeking his first Daytona 500 victory, a moment that would be one of the biggest in his career.
The time he’s put into preparing for The Great American Race hasn’t changed, Elliott tipped, but the balance of where his team has put its focus was what shifted ahead of Speedweeks.
“We try to put all our effort into the race for sure, but that’s just kind of how it worked out,” he explained. “Like I said, it’s nice to qualify [well], but at the same time, we’d much rather have our car driving well and (so we) just put a lot of effort into that.
“I don’t necessarily think it makes it any easier or harder, because everybody has what they have when they get here,” he noted. “You can’t rebuild your car once you get here. You’re kind of set with what you put your effort in before you showed up, and that’s where we ended up (on single-car speed).”
Elliott is hoping to “find a little luck” for Sunday’s Daytona 500, considering he’s crashed out of four of his last six Cup Series starts at Daytona’s 2.5-mile superspeedway, including two of his last three Daytona 500s.
The good news is that Elliott posted his best-career Daytona Cup Series finish last August, when he ran second behind teammate William Byron during the regular-season finale.
Elliott will be back on track Thursday night for the Bluegreen Vacation Duels at Daytona, where his final starting position for the 63rd Daytona 500 will be determined with a 150-mile qualifying race.
Coverage of Sunday’s Daytona 500 begins at 2:30 p.m. ET, live on FOX, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.