WATCH: Chase Elliott being shunted by Daniel Suarez at the back in the Indianapolis race

In the third stage at Indianapolis, Chase Elliott was gaining ground while maintaining a strong position at P2.

Daniel Suarez was anxious to make amends after surrendering the lead to Elliott and McDowell. Elliott began to lose a little grip in the rear as the pit stops drew near.

The race, however, took an unexpected turn when Daniel Suarez's car violently overshot the braking mark and forced Elliott off the racing line.

The incident is shown in the video below:

Suarez's car pushed Elliott out of the way at turn 12 on lap 48 to climb up to P2. But Elliott regained his position when Suarez had a bad pit stop that made him lose it.

The Hendrick Motorsport driver settled for second place as Michael McDowell won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis.

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Chase Elliott still below the playoff cutoff after finishing second at Indianapolis

In Sunday's Verizon 200 at The Brickyard, Chase Elliott lagged behind leader Michael McDowell by 1.394 seconds.

By winning at Indianapolis, McDowell took his first win of the season, guaranteeing himself a playoff spot. But Elliott missed a win and failed to secure a playoff spot despite finishing in the top 3.

“Just needed to do a little better job, Michael did an outstanding job getting through traffic, and I didn’t. Gained a lot of time on him those last couple of laps. Just not quite enough,” Elliott said (via NASCAR).

The races on August 20 at Watkins Glen and August 26 at Daytona will determine Elliott's final two chances to qualify for the playoffs.

With two regular-season races remaining, he is still 80 points below the provisional elimination line and must win to maintain his playoff spot.