Chase Elliott arrived at Richmond final weekend using a report, no DNFs by way of the primary 24 races of 2025 and a streak that stretched again to the ultimate three occasions of final season, making it 27 consecutive begins with out an early exit. He had additionally strung collectively 23 straight top-20 finishes to open the 12 months, a run that snapped at Watkins Glen with a P26 outcome. At Richmond nevertheless, Kyle Busch ended his spotless DNF streak.
The difficulty started when Chase Briscoe checked up on a restart, slid into Busch’s lane, and ignited a 12-car pileup on the entrance stretch. Elliott, operating simply behind, believed he might keep away from the chaos. However Busch, apparently unaware of his place, clipped the No. 9’s rear bumper whereas working by way of the mess, sending Elliott laborious into the wall and ending his night time.
Regardless of the setback, Elliott harbored no resentment towards Busch. He mentioned that “Kyle did attain out to me. He apologized for what occurred. I don’t have any differing opinion on it. I used to be by no means mad at him. I knew it was a mistake proper after I noticed it. It sucks and I hate it.
“It clearly killed our night time and our regular-season championship hopes, sort of all on the identical time. However I knew it was nothing that he (Busch) did on goal. It wasn’t something aimed toward us. It was simply the way in which that all of it went down, and sadly, we had been on the dangerous finish of it…
“He didn’t notice we had been all coming by down there on the underside. Clearly, he simply acquired by way of the wreck like a whole lot of us who had sort of been in it.”
