Elliott Thrills Hometown Crowd, Outduels Keselowski to Win in Atlanta
With one flick of the switch on the si-reen at the Dawsonville Pool Room, Chase Elliott's 43-race winless streak has been reset to zero. The driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet came out on top of an electric, and hard-fought battle with Brad Keselowski in the closing laps of Saturday night's Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway to pick up his first win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, and his first win since the ninth race of the 2024 season.
Race Results: Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway
Elliott, who led the race on nine occasions for a total of 41 laps, took the lead for the last time on the final lap with a thrilling pass on Keselowski entering Turns 1 and 2. Elliott was able to slingshot past Keselowski and clear him, which allowed him to pull up in front of the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse to stall out his run.
Elliott simply had to hit his marks and listen to his spotter in case anyone got one last-ditch magical drafting run. Spoiler alert: they didn't. This victory marks the 20th career win for the sport's perennial Most Popular Driver, and Elliott, who resides in Dawsonville, GA, thrilled the hometown crowd which came to life as Elliott took the lead on the final lap of the race.
Keselowski, who sits 28th in the championship standings even after his runner-up finish on Saturday night, will need a win in order to advance to the Playoffs, but if the driver of the No. 6 Ford continues to run like he's run in recent weeks, a win should be looming around the corner.
Through the opening 12 races of the season, Keselowski failed to collect a single top-10 finish. Over the last six races, Keselowski has recorded two top-five finishes, four top-10s, and has an average finish of 12.33.
Alex Bowman, who delivered some incredible pushes to Elliott in the closing laps to help his teammate get in position to take the race win, secured a third-place finish. After back-to-back 36th-place finishes at Nashville and Michigan, Bowman has bounced back with a fourth-place result in Mexico City, an 11th-place run in Pocono and a third-place finish Saturday in Atlanta.
Tyler Reddick finished the event in the fourth position, and he was followed across the finish line by Erik Jones, another driver who finds himself on a hotstreak.
Over the last six races, Jones has clawed his way from 29th in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings to now being tied with Austin Cindric for 15th. It's been an incredible climb for Jones and the No. 43 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB team.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who was penalized heading into the final restart of the race, sliced and diced his way from 21st-place to finish sixth in the closing laps, while Zane Smith, Ty Dillon, Chris Buescher, and Carson Hocevar rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
Stenhouse came into the weekend matched up against Christopher Bell in the opening round of NASCAR's inaugural In-Season Tournament. Bell spun out early in the event, and eventually retired from the race after completing 114 laps. As a result, Stenhouse pulled the upset and advanced to Round 2 of the tournament.
But Stenhouse moving into the next round of the tournament was far from the only upset in the Tournament field on Saturday night.
Ty Dillon's first top-10 finish of the season came at an opportune time as he came into the race as the 32nd, and final, seed in the NASCAR In-Season Tournament. Dillon was matched up against No. 1 seed Denny Hamlin. Hamlin, who was swept up in a massive Lap 69 crash, finished 31st, and was eliminated from the $1 million tournament.
"To the Denny fans out there, I just knocked out your favorite driver," Dillon said in his post-race interview on TNT, poking fun at Hamlin's catch phrase that he uses in victory lane interviews.
Hocevar was another upset winner in the opening round of the In-Season Tournament as he knocked out Ryan Blaney, who was knocked out of the race after a crash on Lap 57.
The Results From the 16 Round 1 In-Season Tournament Matchups:
- No. 32 Ty Dillon (8th) defeated No. 1 Denny Hamlin (31st)
- No. 31 Noah Gragson (25th) defeated No. 2 Chase Briscoe (35th)
- No. 3 Chris Buescher (9th) defeated No. 30 Todd Gilliland (27th)
- No. 29 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (6th) defeated No. 4 Christopher Bell (30th)
- No. 5 Chase Elliott (1st) defeated No. 28 Austin Dillon (20th)
- No. 6 Ty Gibbs (14th) defeated No. 27 Justin Haley (23rd)
- No. 26 Carson Hocevar (10th) defeated No. 7 Ryan Blaney (40th)
- No. 8 Alex Bowman (3rd) defeated No. 25 Joey Logano (36th)
- No. 9 Bubba Wallace (22nd) defeated No. 24 Daniel Suarez (34th)
- No. 23 Tyler Reddick (4th) defeated No. 10 Kyle Larson (17th)
- No. 22 AJ Allmendinger (12th) defeated No. 11 Michael McDowell (18th)
- No. 12 John Hunter Nemechek (26th) defeated No. 21 Josh Berry (32nd)
- No. 20 Erik Jones (5th) defeated No. 13 Ross Chastain (33rd)
- No. 14 Zane Smith (7th) defeated No. 19 Austin Cindric (38th)
- No. 15 Ryan Preece (15th) defeated No. 18 William Byron (37th)
- No. 17 Brad Keselowski (2nd) defeated No. 16 Kyle Busch (21st)
The talk of the town heading into Saturday's race was the speed of the Team Penske-alliance cars, which swept the top-four starting spots in qualifying for the Quaker State 400. And that speed carried over into the race as the Penske cars had the race under control in Stage 1.
Joey Logano led a race-high 51 laps from the pole, but it wasn't to be for the Penske cars.
Ryan Blaney, the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford, was wiped out of the race after Christopher Bell spun out on Lap 57. What resulted from Bell's spin was a crash that ended the opening Stage of the race, which was won by Penske's Austin Cindric.
The No. 20 spins in front of the field and collects @Blaney and @austindillon3!
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 29, 2025
Huge In-Season Challenge implications here! pic.twitter.com/OIU77nuqzk
In the crash, Blaney got clipped attempting to skirt by the accident, which sent him head-on into the outside wall. The crash ended his race.
When the race went back green on Lap 69 to kick off Stage 2 of the race, all three of the other Penske cars were involved in a massive 24-car melee on the backstretch. In an instant, the four dominant cars were removed from the race.
WE GOT A CRASH AT THE NASCAR In-Season Challenge Round 1 😬 pic.twitter.com/OuVV5l9CVX
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 29, 2025
The Penske demise opened the door for everyone else, and Chase Elliott was the one who would ultimately walk through the door.
William Byron continues to lead the NASCAR Cup Series point standings, but his once seemingly insurmountable point lead has nearly evaporated. Byron has just a 37-point advantage heading into next weekend's event at the Chicago Street Course. With his win on Sunday, Elliott has actually leap-frogged Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, and Christopher Bell, who all had rough races, to move into the second position in the championship standings with eight races remaining until the Playoffs begin.
Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course on Sunday, July 6. That race will be televised on TNT and the race broadcast coverage will kick off at 2:00 PM ET. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the race.
*Note: Quotes from the race winner and other main stories in the race will be added in after the initial publishing of this story. Check back for updates.
Recommended Articles
feed
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.