Chase Elliott delivered a storybook ending under the lights at EchoPark Speedway, capturing a dramatic victory at his home track in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400.
In front of an energized Georgia crowd, the Dawsonville, Ga., native surged to the front with a last-lap pass on Brad Keselowski to take the checkered flag, earning his first win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season and punching his ticket to the playoffs.
Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, specially designed by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta patient Rhealynn, added an emotional layer to the already dramatic evening. Starting 15th, Elliott methodically worked his way through the field, surviving a race filled with 46 lead changes and 10 cautions to claim the second Atlanta win of his career.
“This is unbelievable,” said Elliott in front of the roaring crowd. “All of the cards fell in the right places in the last couple of laps,” said Elliott. “What a crazy race. It was wild from my seat, but I’m glad we got to run that thing out there to the end.”
The chaos began early, with Joey Logano dominating the first 48 laps before a weather-delayed red flag shook things up. When the race resumed, Austin Cindric edged teammate Logano to take the Stage 1 win. Stage 2 was marred by a massive crash that collected top contenders like Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Logano and Daniel Suárez, while Reddick narrowly beat Elliott to the line. Elliott, unfazed, kept digging.
In the final stage, Elliott cycled to the front on pit strategy, battling with Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman and Keselowski in a restart-heavy sprint to the finish. Zane Smith briefly took the lead with 11 laps to go, but Keselowski regained control with five laps remaining — until Elliott pounced on the final lap.
As the top duo took the white flag and raced to Turn 1, Keselowski threw blocks high and low, trying to protect the lead, but Elliott found an opening to the inside. As the field roared out of Turn 2, Elliott cleared the pack and held the advantage back to the finish line first, delivering a storybook ending for the Georgia-born driver on his home turf. The crowd erupted as Elliott completed his victory lap, celebrating a hard-fought win.
With Elliott’s last lap pass, Keselowki, who led a race-high of 41 laps, settled for second.
“I just got doubled up on. The 48 and 9 cars were able to get together right when it mattered and worked together,” said Keselowski. “One-on-one, I could take them, but two-on-one it was just more than I had. It was a competitive day (for the RFK team), we’re not everywhere we want to be, but we’re making the most of our opportunities.”
Elliott’s teammate Alex Bowman fought his way into third late.
“I needed to lead later. Whoever was up front felt like a sitting duck there at the end,” said Bowman. “I wish it were us in Victory Lane, we had a really fast Ally 48, but I’m super proud of the No. 9 team and happy a Hendrick car got it done. Just gotta keep on digging.”
Tyler Reddick piloted his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota to fourth place.
“I just needed to be smarter with my move on the No. 6, they got us shuffled too far back to be able to fight truly for the win,” said Reddick. “Disappointing for sure, but nice to get some playoff points. More and more new winners, but we have to find a way to get to Victory Lane.”
Erik Jones rounded out the top five, bouncing back from a late-race spin.
“It was a great finish, but we just needed some more time. I was picking them off and making moves, taking advantage of it, and trying to stay in line, but we just ran out of time,” Jones said. “We were getting up there and in contention with those guys after spinning, but proud of the day, we made some changes to the car and came back from a couple of wrecks, so a top five is a pretty good day.”
As fireworks lit up the Georgia sky, Elliott celebrated his second career win at EchoPark Speedway, making a bold statement at the halfway point of the 2025 season.
Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart NASCAR Cup Series results Saturday night from EchoPark Speedway:
- Chase Elliott
- Brad Keselowski
- Alex Bowman
- Tyler Reddick
- Erik Jones
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Zane Smith
- Ty Dillon
- Chris Buescher
- Carson Hocevar
- Connor Zilisch
- AJ Allmendinger
- Cody Ware
- Ty Gibbs
- Ryan Preece
- B.J. McLeod
- Kyle Larson
- Michael McDowell
- Cole Custer
- Austin Dillon
- Kyle Busch
- Bubba Wallace
- Justin Haley
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Noah Gragson
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Todd Gilliland
- Riley Herbst
- David Starr
- Christopher Bell
- Denny Hamlin
- Josh Berry
- Ross Chastain
- Daniel Suárez
- Chase Briscoe
- Joey Logano
- William Byron
- Austin Cindric
- Corey Lajoie
- Ryan Blaney
