PENSACOLA, FL :: Chase Elliott was excited to return to his roots and compete in the Snowball Derby this weekend but not thrilled with the end result, finishing 29th after getting caught up in an incident with Erik Jones with 80 laps remaining on Sunday at Five Flags Speedway.

Elliott restarted sixth on the lap 220 restart when leader Erik Jones failed to get going. His rear end suspension was coming loose and he spun on the outside in the middle of Turns 1 and 2. The defending Nationwide Series champion said he was caught in the worst position as a driver — not knowing whether to speed up or slow down.

Elliott chose to hop off the throttle and was hit from behind.

“I don’t even know what happened,” Elliott told Race22.com after the race. “All I know is that they started wrecking. I slowed down and it was a typical deal where someone behind you didn’t see it and couldn’t slow down enough and ran into the back of us. That just sucked at the end but that’s short track racing.

“I know better than to slow down like that. It’s not necessarily the smartest thing to keep on rolling either but that was my mistake and I ought to know better.”

It’s especially disappointing for Elliott because he rushed his Derby program together late in the process and still had the speed and pace needed to win the race. He worked tirelessly on his Super Late Model with long-time engineer Ricky Turner in the aftermath of his Nationwide Series championship, making the results all the more disheartening.

Elliott started 12th but ran just outside of the top-5 for the majority of the event was pacing himself in preparation for the final dash to the checkers.

“Honestly, it was a lot of work,” Elliott said. “Ricky and I worked on it for about a month and a half. We worked really hard every day and gave it our best effort. We had a good car and we had a legitimate shot. We struggled there a little bit at the beginning but for whatever reason, after one of those restarts, it came to life.

“We made small adjustments before that restart and it was really good from there forward. We had a hang-up on one of those pit stops, which is fine, because those things happen. I hate the way it ended but we gave it our best shot.”

Despite the results, Elliott was happy to have made it back to the Snowball Derby, a race that served as a catalyst for his career after winning it back in 2011. He just wished he could have had the opportunity to race for a second Tom Dawson Memorial Trophy in the closing stages on Sunday night.

“It was good to come back for sure,” Elliott said. “But it was not good to come back and have a result like this and tear up a race car and engine but that’s racing some days and today was not our day. So we’ll go back to the shop and rebuild it better than it was.”

Elliott added that he was not sure if he would compete in CRA Speedfest next month at Watermelon Capital Speedway in Cordele, Ga. as that decision was dependent on the results of the Derby. It seems unlikely given the state of the 19-year-old’s Super Late Model but he didn’t completely rule it out.