NASCAR at Atlanta outcomes: Chase Elliott will get his first win of 2025 with a final lap move on Brad Keselowski

HAMPTON, Ga. — With a final lap move on one other former NASCAR Cup Sequence champion, Chase Elliott shot previous Brad Keselowski and to the checkered flag to win the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway, incomes his first win of the 2025 season and the twentieth of his Cup profession.

Elliott, the 2020 Cup champion and a local of Dawsonville, Georgia, earned his second profession win at his house observe in Atlanta after beforehand successful there in 2022.

In a scramble over the ultimate 10 laps that noticed a number of drivers swap the lead, Elliott seized on his likelihood on the white flag, utilizing a push from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman to shoot to the within of Brad Keselowski, giving him the lead by the exit of flip 2. Bowman then took a run to the within of Keselowski, placing them in a side-by-side race for second and giving Elliott all he wanted to see in his rearview mirror.

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Steven Taranto

Regardless of being arguably essentially the most ruthlessly constant driver in Cup this season with not a single end exterior the highest 20, the stress had been mounting on Elliott to get a win and as soon as once more affirm his place as each a previous champion and NASCAR’s perennial Most Widespread Driver. Now, Elliott is within the winner’s column and may flip his focus to making an attempt to win his second Cup championship.

“I’ve by no means in my life. I’ve by no means in my life. That is unbelievable,” Elliott advised TNT Sports activities because the Georgia crowd voiced its thunderous approval for his or her native hero. “… Truthfully, all of the playing cards fell in the appropriate locations there these final couple laps. What a loopy race, man. I do not know if y’all had enjoyable, however it was wild from my seat. Glad we obtained to run that factor on the market to the tip … Because of all you guys, as a result of this proper right here is — you possibly can’t dream of this.”

Elliott’s win managed to maintain NASCAR’s playoff image pretty intact regardless of what the circumstances of the race created: On a lap 69 restart, 23 vehicles have been swept up in a large, field-clearing crash coming into flip 3 that took out many contenders, together with Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, William Byron and a number of others. Of their place, the ultimate laps noticed drivers in deep factors holes towards making the playoffs like Brad Keselowski and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., in addition to these gunning for his or her first profession win like Zane Smith, take turns on the entrance and threaten to upend the playoff grid.

Keselowski would find yourself ending second over Bowman in third, Tyler Reddick in fourth, and Erik Jones in fifth. Stenhouse, Smith, Ty Dillon, Chris Buescher and Carson Hocevar made up the remainder of the highest 10.

The large accident did little to dissuade the sector from the kind of aggressive, pack-style racing that EchoPark Speedway has develop into recognized for since its 2022 reconfiguration, as 46 lead modifications between 13 totally different drivers have been counteracted by 10 cautions. One such warning concerned Bubba Wallace, who spun and nosed into the wall off flip 2, forcing him to limp house in twenty second and put him in a precarious place as he tries to carry onto a playoff spot.

With Bowman ending third, Wallace now holds the ultimate spot above the playoff reduce line by 23 factors over Ryan Preece, who ended up fifteenth. Erik Jones’ fifth-place end additionally continues a string of latest success that now places him 49 factors under the reduce line, simply forward of A.J. Allmendinger (-58), whose Twelfth-place end has him well-positioned to pounce with two street course races at Chicago and Sonoma subsequent as NASCAR begins the month of July.

Quaker State 400 outcomes

1. #9 – Chase Elliott
2. #6 – Brad Keselowski
3. #48 – Alex Bowman
4. #45 – Tyler Reddick
5. #43 – Erik Jones
6. #47 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
7. #38 – Zane Smith
8. #10 – Ty Dillon
9. #17 – Chris Buescher
10. #77 – Carson Hocevar
11. #87 – Connor Zilisch
12. #16 – A.J. Allmendinger
13. #51 – Cody Ware
14. #54 – Ty Gibbs
15. #60 – Ryan Preece
16. #78 – B.J. McLeod
17. #5 – Kyle Larson
18. #71 – Michael McDowell
19. #41 – Cole Custer
20. #3 – Austin Dillon
21. #8 – Kyle Busch
22. #23 – Bubba Wallace
23. #7 – Justin Haley
24. #88 – Shane van Gisbergen (R)
25. #4 – Noah Gragson
26. #42 – John Hunter Nemechek
27. #34 – Todd Gilliland
28. #35 – Riley Herbst (R)
29. #66 – David Starr
30. #20 – Christopher Bell
31. #11 – Denny Hamlin
32. #21 – Josh Berry
33. #1 – Ross Chastain
34. #99 – Daniel Suarez
35. #19 – Chase Briscoe
36. #22 – Joey Logano
37. #24 – William Byron
38. #2 – Austin Cindric
39. #01 – Corey LaJoie
40. #12 – Ryan Blaney