HAMPTON, Ga. — As elation and emotion encapsulated the Georgia night sky, Chase Elliott was at the forefront.
For the 29-year-old Dawsonville, Georgia native, the opportunity to capture a storybook victory was apparent at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway). Following masterful navigation around the drafting 1.54-miler, Elliott did just that, wheeling an electric last-lap pass en route to an under-the-lights dub at his hometown track Saturday evening.
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The 2020 Cup champion has won at his home track before, scoring a dramatic victory back in 2022. But the atmosphere after his win Saturday as fans rallied around the sport’s most popular driver was unlike anything he had ever experienced. Usually stoic, reserved and poised, Elliott was overcome with exhilaration, throwing his fists skyward and soaking in the roar of the crowd as fireworks exploded behind him. Moments later, he was walking into the grandstands to soak in the win together with his fellow Georgians.
After 44 races without a win, after near-misses and heartbreak along the way, Chase Elliott was headed back to Victory Lane in the state that raised him.
“It was just truly a pretty surreal moment,” Elliott said. “I mean … I don’t even know. I’m not even sure that anything has ever matched that. Like, that was just crazy. I’ve never been on stage and been a singer or anything like that, but I would have to imagine it’d have to feel something like that. It was just such an incredible experience.”
There have been frustrations along the way. Though the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet netted race-contending results, race-winning ones had lacked; since his April 2024 win at Texas Motor Speedway, Elliott entered Saturday’s Atlanta bout without a points-paying win in nearly 15 months. Finishes showed promise — Elliott tallied 13 top-five finishes during that stretch and finished all 17 prior races of 2025 inside the top 20 — but a victory eluded him.
Enter Saturday, where, after qualifying 15th, Elliott had an opportunity not only to end such a drought but also to clinch a postseason berth outright. While Elliott was 160 points above the elimination line entering the contest, he did not have a race victory, making his 2025 Cup Series Playoffs position far from guaranteed. Momentum carried from strong performances in recent weeks, though: Elliott led 19 laps at Michigan International Speedway before fading to 15th, then came back to finish third in Mexico City ahead of a fifth-place effort at Pocono Raceway last week.
Capping that hot streak with such a meaningful victory was the ultimate cherry atop the proverbial sundae as the famed si-reen rang at the Dawsonville Pool Room Saturday night.
“Grateful to have experienced that,” Elliott said. “Something I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Winning at home was incredible the first time. They feel different. But this one, Saturday night under the lights, been a while since we won, getting ourselves a win and advancing up on the playoff (standings). Just all the things that have come with this, that one was up there, for sure.”
Having a friend helped when navigating Atlanta, especially in the case of Alex Bowman, who, similarly to Elliott, also entered Saturday above the elimination line but without a race win to his season ledger. After mostly escaping early-race carnage en route to a potential race lead, Elliott and Bowman aimed to seize control and utilize long-run speed to the checkered flag.
RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski/Chris Buescher tandem had something to say about that, however. The Ford duo (also looking to clinch their respective season-first wins and playoff berths) — battled back and forth with the two Chevys, trading top and bottom lanes on restarts and exchanging drafting positions as the race’s middle stages continued into its final segment. The quartet combined to lead 134 laps, with all four finishing inside the top nine (Keselowski second, Bowman third, Buescher ninth).
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“You’re just trying to keep your momentum going,” Bowman said when speaking of the strategy to overtake the RFK Fords. “It wasn’t really like an HMS thing. I was gonna push whoever the car was immediately in front of me, and just so happened that it was Chase.”
Intentional or not, Bowman’s push was both noticed and appreciated by leadership at Hendrick Motorsports.
“We’re probably not sitting here without Alex Bowman and the move he made there and the teammate that he was tonight, so just really proud of him and Blake (Harris, No. 48 crew chief) for the car they had,” Jeff Andrews, Hendrick Motorsports president, said. “But, you know, ultimately, when you have fast race cars like that, it was kind of clear to us early on that we had a lot of speed in our cars, and you just want to be able to see that through.”
Teamwork, well, worked. With the finish, three of the four Hendrick Motorsports machines (Elliott, William Byron, Kyle Larson) have found Victory Lane in 2025, practically cementing postseason berths for each as the trio controls the top three spots in points. Bowman, meanwhile, sits 15th in the playoff standings and 39 markers to the good, a 19-point uptick compared to where he was entering the weekend.
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But that teamwork can be narrowed down to the unity of the No. 9 itself. Each of Elliott’s last two victories have snapped long winless streaks — his Texas victory in 2024 snapped a 42-race skid ahead of the 44-race spell he broke Saturday night. Elliott has worked with crew chief Alan Gustafson for the entirety of his full-time Cup career since 2016, claiming the championship together in 2020. Gustafson’s guidance, Elliott said, is the glue that has kept the No. 9 team from caving through slumps, such as missing the playoffs just two years ago.
“A large part of our group has been the same since I got here,” Elliott said. “Obviously, Alan and I have been working together for 10 years now. There have been some personnel changes here and there. Totally understand that. When you’re fortunate enough to climb the mountain and be able to stand at the top of the mountain with someone, that’s an incredible achievement, right? That’s something that he and I will always cherish and remember that we did that together, right?
“Since then, we have failed to climb that mountain again like we want. We have fallen off of it a few times. For me, it’s really, really important to climb that mountain with the same people that we did the first time and know that we never quit on each other. That’s just a really important piece of the puzzle for me.”
With a drought no more, Saturday proved there was no quit. The team’s ascension to Victory Lane asserted those never-quit attitudes are still paying off, both in mindset and performance.
“I think that, for me, satisfaction and showing up on a weekend is: Were we relevant? Were we in contention? Do we actually have a shot? Are we up there with pace and doing the right things?” Elliott explained. “I just believe that in this sport, if you’re doing all those right things, A, that’s something to be proud of, and B, if you’re doing them regularly, you’re going to get your turn. And I thought tonight was a great example of that.”
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Eight regular-season races remain before postseason play begins, and there’s still ripe opportunity for the Peach State native in Elliott, who will look to fine-tune the current wave of momentum into more race wins.
In other words, a storybook finish could be just the prologue of what could come next.
“I’m just really proud of all of our guys for … just showing up every week and having great attitudes,” Elliott said, “just doing everything in their power to put the car, the product on the race track that they do, the effort they put in going over the wall, the way Alan brings intensity to the race track, calling races, meetings, making sure he’s getting everything out of me. It’s all right there.
“We have such a good, talented group of people that are motivated, good people away from the race track, too. You can’t quit on that.”
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