Someone probably ought to check on the NASCAR fans in Georgia this morning. There’s a good chance they woke up with a hangover, a sore throat, and the faintest smell of burnt rubber still clinging to their clothes — and they’re perfectly fine with all of it.
Their hangover must be awful. But Chase Elliott finally gave them a reason to earn it.
After more than a year stuck in racing purgatory, Georgia’s favorite son stormed back into Victory Lane Saturday night at what used to be Atlanta Motor Speedway — now called EchoPark Speedway, because nothing stays sacred for long. And he did it in dramatic, homegrown fashion: a last-lap, out-of-nowhere slingshot around Brad Keselowski to steal the win by a scant .168 of a second.
It was Elliott’s first trip to Victory Lane since Texas last April. But for the better part of the night, it looked like he’d have to settle for watching someone else spray the champagne.
“Unbelievable… unbelievable,” Elliott shouted. “How about that? Are you kidding me? I’ve never in my life… This is unbelievable.”
The final run of the night came after the race’s 10th caution and over the course of just over 30 laps it was a four-way dogfight with the lead changing hands nearly every corner— traded between Keselowski, Tyler Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and even Zane Smith. Elliott, meanwhile, who did lead a total of 41 laps, lurked just behind the top five and pounced at just the right time to stun the field and cross the line.
And when he did, Georgia absolutely lost its mind.
“Well I just think that, honestly, all the cards fell on the right places there those last couple laps,” Elliott said. “What a crazy race, man. I don’t know if y’all had fun, but it was wild from my seat. I’m so glad we got to run that thing out there to the end.”
Keselowski crossed the line second, followed by Alex Bowman, Reddick — who picked up the Stage 2 win — and Erik Jones to round out the top five.
“The cars get too big of a run and it ain’t over til it’s over,” Keselowski said. “Every time I got the lead, I couldn’t seem to get everything to go our way. If we could have gotten a yellow or anything there it certainly would have been helpful, but that didn’t happen.”
But make no mistake, this wasn’t a race about raw speed. It was about survival. Because when NASCAR goes off the rails, it doesn’t do it halfway. It goes full Michael Bay — fire, smoke, twisted metal, and enough drama to leave bracket challenges and egos alike in smoking ruins.
The first stage alone took longer than expected, thanks to a nearly 15-minute red flag on Lap 37 for rain. And when the clouds finally cleared, the chaos rolled right in.
It all started with a bracket-buster on Lap 58, when Christopher Bell — the 4th seed in the in-season Challenge — lost control out of Turn 3 while running inside the top 10. Bell’s Toyota smacked the wall, triggering a wreck that dragged in Ryan Blaney (7th seed), Bubba Wallace (9th), Austin Dillon, and Kyle Larson (10th). Bell and Blaney were done on the spot. Larson limped away, his car looking only slightly better than his playoff hopes.
But that was just the warm-up act.
On the very first lap of Stage 2, everything properly detonated. Denny Hamlin, the No. 1 seed, got into the back of John Hunter Nemechek entering Turn 3 — and suddenly Turn 3 looked like the aftermath of a demolition derby. The biggest crash of the night piled up 29 cars in spectacular, sheet-metal-mangling fashion. Among the casualties? Austin Cindric, Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez, Josh Berry, William Byron, Joey Logano — who’d led 51 laps from the pole — and several others who probably just wanted to go home after that.
Out came the red flag again. By the time the cleanup crews finished, the field looked like one of those Florida junkyards where you pay five bucks to wander around and dream of restoring something.
But with the usual suspects either wrecked or wounded, the race opened the door for the underdogs — guys like Ty Gibbs, Riley Herbst, and Zane Smith who all took a turn at the front, proving once again that on these superspeedway-style nights, horsepower is good, but luck is better.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was sixth, Zane Smith held on for seventh, followed by Ty Dillon, Chris Buescher and Carson Hocevar rounding out the top 10.
In all, 11 cars ended the night in the garage, and Elliott was one of only four who escaped the mayhem without a scratch.
And— finally, at long last — everything lined up. Home track, home crowd, last-lap heroics, and the kind of victory that sends Georgia into a frenzy. Hangovers included.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
- NASCAR Puts Chicago Street Race on Ice For One Year - July 18, 2025
- Chase Briscoe Calls Battling SVG Like Trying to Guard Michael Jordan in His Prime - July 13, 2025
- Things Get Spicy on Pit Road at Sonoma - July 13, 2025