Kyle Busch apologized for wrecking Chase Elliott’s championship hopes

• Elliott accepted the apology and acknowledged the incident was unintentional.
• Elliott, who had already qualified for the playoffs, expressed disappointment but understood that Busch didn’t intentionally cause the wreck.

Chase Elliott received an apology from Kyle Busch after Busch caused him to crash in the NASCAR Richmond race on Aug. 16 that likely wrecked Elliott’s hopes of finishing as the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series regular-season champion.

As Elliott weaved his way through a multi-car wreck on Lap 199 of 400 Busch clipped Elliott’s right rear. The contact sent Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet into the wall on turn 4 resulting in his first DNF of the season and dooming his hopes of earning the 15 playoff points that come with being the regular season champion.

“Kyle did reach out to me; he apologized to me for what happened,” Elliott said on Aug. 19 while in Nashville at the K1 Speed go-kart track. “I don’t have a differing opinion on it. I was never mad at him. I knew it was a mistake right when I saw it.”

Elliott heads into the final race of the regular season at Daytona on Aug. 23 in second place in the Cup Series standings and 61 points behind the leader William Byron.

“It sucks and I hate it,” Elliott said. “It obviously killed our night and our regular-season championship hopes kind of all at the same time. But I knew it was nothing that (Busch) did on purpose. It wasn’t anything aimed at us. It was just the way that it all went down and unfortunately we were on the bad end of it.”

Elliott was hoping to bounce back at Richmond from his worst finish of the season prior to that, which had come the week before at Watkins Glen when he was 26th. He qualified for the playoffs after winning at Atlanta on June 28 and has a total of 13 top-10 finishes this season.

Elliott said Busch did not offer any details about what caused him to get involved in the crash that also included Chase Briscoe and Brad Keselowski or what led to him hitting Elliott.

“He didn’t say anything specific,” Elliott said. “I don’t think he realized we were all coming by down there on the bottom. Obviously, he just got through the wreck like a lot of us who had kind of been in it. When that stuff happens it’s just really hard to pick up and recognize where everyone is at. There was a lot going on and I totally get it.” 

Busch went on to finish 16th.

Elliott won the regular season championship in 2022 and the overall championship in 2020.

Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.