Chase Elliott Wins Pole for Daytona 500

It was a day for young drivers Sunday at Daytona International Speedway. The most nervous and the most happy of them all might be one without the last names of Elliott and Blaney that most fans know.

Chase Elliott, son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, won the pole for the 2016 Daytona 500, setting a record as the youngest driver (20 years, two months and 17 days) ever to accomplish that feat. He had some nerves and obviously a big smile as he has never competed in a Daytona 500, but did step into the Hendrick Motorsports seat replacing Jeff Gordon, who won the pole for the 2015 Daytona 500, also with crew chief Alan Gustafson.

Elliott, the 2014 Xfinity Series champion, knew he had a guaranteed spot in the Daytona 500 and one lap is nothing like 200.

"I just wanted to try to do my job, try not to mess anything up," Elliott said. "I know Alan felt really good about qualifying, hopefully having a shot at the pole. I just didn't want to mess up, try to hit my marks, move forward from there.

"But there were definitely some nerves."

Two other young drivers didn't have guaranteed spots -- until they guaranteed themselves a place on the grid as the two fastest non-guaranteed cars in qualifying. Ryan Blaney, the 22-year-old son of former Sprint Cup driver Dave Blaney, knew he had a fast car and finished seventh overall.

"I wasn't really too nervous going into today," Blaney said. "I knew we had a really fast race car. We just had to do our job and we did it and we just had to lock ourselves in. I really wasn't feeling any different than I do any other day."

Matt DiBenedetto, though, knew he would need nearly everything out of his BK Racing car to guarantee him a place in the field. And the 24-year-old did -- by two-hundredths of a second over Michael McDowell for the 24th spot overall, but more importantly the second spot among the open cars.