Chase Elliott put on a thrilling show at his hometown track, making a last-lap pass of Brad Keselowski to earn his first victory of the 2025 season and lock into the Cup Series playoffs.
Keselowski finished second EchoPark Speedway (formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway), followed by Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick and Erik Jones.
Elliott, who lives in Dawsonville, Georgia, led nine time for 41 laps in his No. 9 Chevrolet, but before leading the final circuit, the seven-time Most Popular Driver most recently had been in first on Lap 225 of 260.
Several contenders were out early after a crashfest at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta.
The 2020 Cup Series champion was among nine drivers who elected to stay on track instead of pit before the final restart with 28 laps remaining. After falling as far as eighth with 10 laps remaining, he charged back to the front with some timely drafting help from Bowman, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, and became the 12th winner of the 2025 Cup season.
“Unbelievable,” Elliott told TNT’s Marty Snider after his second win at the speedway south of Atlanta. “How about that? Are you kidding me? I never in my life. This is unbelievable. Thank you guys so much. What a special car. It was a lot of fun. This right here is something I’ll never forget.”
There were six lead changes in the final 10 laps between Elliott, Keselowski Bowman, Zane Smith and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Keselowski led seven times for 46 laps, including the last five before Elliott snatched the win.
“(Elliott) got a great push from (Bowman),” Keselowski told TNT’s Alan Cavanna. “If those guys would race, I could hold them off, but when they double-teamed me like that, it was the same thing when we had a coupe of teammates, we were able to hold them off. We lost that at the end, and they were able to double-team me. Good effort, led a lot of laps, in position. I don’t think there was anything I could do differently. Just put ourselves in position.
“Every loss hurts. I don’t dwell on it. We’ll go onto next week and try to win.”
Said Bowman: “My car was really good, but I was pretty bottom dependent just with how our handling was. I’d say that win was a little popular, so congrats to the 9 team and Chase. Glad to have a Hendrick car in victory lane. Wish it was us, but we had a really fast 48 after we crashed. Just needed to not lose control of the race. That was hard to do. Everybody that led lost control of the race. I just led at the wrong time, I guess.”
It’s the 20th career Cup victory for Elliott, who ended a 44-race winless streak dating to April 14, 2024 at Texas Motor Speedway.
“I just think that, honestly, all the cards fell on the right places there those last couple laps,” Elliott said. “What a crazy race, man. I don’t know if y’all had fun, but it was wild from my seat. I’m so glad we got to run that thing out there to the end. Some great partners… Chevrolet, say hey to Mr. Hendrick at home. Thanks for sticking with me, pal, and yeah, just again, thanks to all you guys because this right here is … you can’t dream of this.”
He was one of only four of 40 drivers who avoided getting in an accident during the 260-lap race whose complexion was significantly altered by an 18-car crash on a Lap 69 restart.
Among those eliminated in the wreck: pole-sitter Joey Logano, In-Season Challenge top seed Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez, Chase Briscoe and William Byron.
The Lap 70 crash involved the top two seeds and several other contenders.
“I don’t know why we see guys pushing like dummies early down the backstretch,” said Corey LaJoie, who finished 39th in his return behind the wheel after five races as a TV analyst on Prime. “I don’t know what we’re doing. We just started the stage. I don’t know why we’re pushing like we’re damn bumper cars at Frankie’s Fun Park, but that’s not to be surprised. I think there are a lot of guys who don’t make wise decisions driving these things on speedways. Unfortunately, we were right smack in the middle of it.”
The cleanup caused the second red flag of the event.
The race was stopped earlier for about 15 minutes after a rain shower on Lap 37.
There were 16 laps remaining in the first stage on the ensuing restart, and the racing turned furious after the red flag. The chaos finally broke loose with four laps remaining in the stage as Christopher Bell lost control of his No. 20 Toyota in a Turn 4 wreck that also collected Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, AJ Allmendinger and Austin Dillon.
Blaney’s No. 12 Ford was badly damaged, and he was eliminated in last place — his sixth DNF of the season.
“Story of our year: Getting caught up in other people’s garbage,” Blaney said. “As soon as I feel like we get it going pretty good and find some momentum, we never really seem to have things going our way. Tried to flip the stage and was right in the middle of it. Stinks and that’s the way it goes sometimes.”
Blaney endured the worst of a rough night for Team Penske, which also had Logano and Austin Cindric eliminated in wrecks. Josh Berry, whose No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford is prepared by Penske, also was knocked out with crash damage.
Stage 1 winner: Cindric
Stage 2 winner: Reddick
Next up: Sunday, July 6, 2 p.m. ET at the Chicago Street Race on TNT.
Read the full article here