Elliott Snaps Cup Series Drought In EchoPark Thriller

Chase Elliott celebrates on the frontstretch after winning Saturday at EchoPark Speedway. (Scotte Sprinkle/Race Face Digital photo)

HAMPTON, Ga. – The cheers of the EchoPark Speedway crowd Saturday night easily rivaled the famed Dawsonville Pool Room si-reen when Chase Elliott climbed from his race car on the frontstretch.

Georgia’s favorite NASCAR son drove to a thrilling victory in a wild Quaker State 400 that featured daring moves, a field-thinning ‘Big One’, and a last-lap pass for the win under the lights.

Taking a push from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman coming to the white flag, Elliott dove to the inside of late-race dominator Brad Keselowski and cleared Keselowski’s Ford exiting turn two.

From there, the Dawsonville, Ga., native and seven-time Most Popular Driver fended off the field to take the checkered flag for the first time since April of 2024 at Texas Motor Speedway.

The thrilling win snapped a 44-race drought and marked the milestone 20th career NASCAR Cup Series triumph for Elliott, as well as his second in front of his home state fans in the Atlanta metro area.

“Unbelievable. I’m nearly speechless. How about that?” Elliott said as he shrugged his shoulders in seeming disbelief. “Are you kidding me?

“I’ve never in my life felt something quite like that. … What a special car and a special moment,” added Elliott, whose paint scheme Saturday was designed by local pediatric cancer patient Rhealynn Mills. “I’m so thankful for NAPA (Auto Parts) and everything they do for me and to benefit Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and Rhealynn designed a super-fast Chevrolet for us.

“This was a lot of fun and it’s something that I’ll never forget. You can’t dream this up.”

Elliott had flashes of dominance all night long, leading nine times for a combined 41 laps, but with four laps remaining he was mired in sixth and appeared to be out of contention down the stretch.

The move that put Elliott into the final mix was a three-wide, top-to-bottom slice exiting the quad-oval with three to go, passing both Bowman and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and positioning the No. 9 to get the drafting help needed from Bowman for the final sprint to the finish.

Chase Elliott (9) leads Brad Keselowski (6) and Alex Bowman on the final lap Saturday night at Georgia's EchoPark Speedway. (Max Corcoran/Race Face Digital photo)

“I just think, honestly, all the cards fell just right for us in the last couple of laps. What a crazy race,” Elliott noted. “I don’t know if [the fans] had fun, but it was wild from my seat. Glad we got to run it out to the end. … I took that push from Alex and it all worked out for us.”

Coming to the white flag, the entirety of the top 10 was seeking a win to lock into the Cup Series playoffs.

RFK Racing driver and co-owner Keselowski was chief among them after coming into the night 30th in the regular season standings, with his postseason hopes in must-win territory.

That meant that second place made the thin .168-second margin of defeat feel like a cavernous chasm.

“The [No.] 9 [Elliott] just had the [No.] 48 [Bowman] behind him, giving him a huge push, and there was nothing I could do to cover that,” Keselowski lamented. “When we had our [RFK] cars linked up, we could do the same thing, but we lost that edge late and it just became a two-on-one [fight].

“I fought as hard as I could.”

Bowman just missed runner-up honors in a photo finish at the line with Keselowski, crossing third by .002 seconds, with the Toyota duo of 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones filling out the top five.

Stenhouse faded to sixth, with Front Row Motorsports’ Zane Smith landing seventh after leading as late as eight to go. Ty Dillon, Chris Buescher, and Carson Hocevar were the rest of the top-10 finishers.

Saturday night’s race – the first for returning media partner TNT Sports – was turned on its head at the lap-69 restart that opened the second stage.

Going down the backstretch, Denny Hamlin was spun from behind and came across the pack into Noah Gragson, creating a parking lot of wrecked race cars as most of the field scattered to avoid damage.

Many of those efforts were futile, however, because when all was said and done 25 of the 40 cars in the field were involved in the accident in some form or fashion.

The proverbial ‘Big One’ eliminated the likes of Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, Chase Briscoe, defending Cup Series champion and EchoPark Speedway winner Joey Logano, and William Byron, throwing the doors wide open for others – including Elliott – to capitalize.

In total, 10 cautions slowed the pace for 68 laps, including a 14-minute red flag for light mist during stage one after 35 laps had been completed. Elliott’s winning average speed was 111.779 mph.

NASCAR Cup Series teams head to the Windy City for Independence Day weekend, with the third running of the Grant Park 165 on deck at the Chicago (Ill.) Street Course.

Broadcast coverage airs Sunday, July 6 at 2 p.m. ET, live on TNT, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.