NASCAR News 2016: Chase Elliott Makes History in Winning Daytona 500 Pole

By Jude Abastar, Christian Post Contributor Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Chase Elliot made history on Sunday after winning the pole position for Daytona 500 and becoming the youngest to do so at 20 years old; he was driving the No. 24 car of another racing great in Jeff Gordon, who decided to retire and concentrate on becoming a sports analyst for NASCAR.

He beat the record of Austin Dillon, who won the same race two years ago when he was 23 years and 9 months. However, the son of Bill Elliott, who himself is a NASCAR great, didn't want to make a big deal out of his achievement in driving the no. 24 for the first time and then putting it right back into top starting position at first attempt. "Daytona 500 qualifying day is such an opportunity for the teams to really show what they've done in the offseason," he said. "I don't feel like it's about me," the second-generation stock car race driver added.

Chase's win made the Elliott father-and-son tandem the fourth to win a Daytona 500 pole. The feat was achieved by three other son/dad duos in the past, including the Earnhardts (Dale Sr. and Dale Jr.), Bobby and Davey Allison, and Kyle and Richard Petty.

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Elliott actually was third in the first round for one of the 12 transfer spots in the final. He went past through Kyle Busch and stole the show with a lap of 196.314 mph. And he was quite impressed by what he did on the track. "This is a very, very cool day," the ecstatic Elliott said. "I don't know that this opportunity has sunk in yet, much less sitting on the pole for the Daytona 500," he added. He also humorously mentioned that he was just trying his best to achieve his goal for the day, which was to avoid doing anything dumb to mess up. Obviously, he didn't mess it up; instead impressed everyone.

Matt Kenseth came in second after totaling a lap of 196.036 mph and he'll join the front row with Elliott for the 58th Daytona 500 race. Earnhardt finished third (195.682 mph), followed by Busch at 195.207 mph, and then Ricky Stenhouse, who managed 195.118 mph.