Chase Elliott wins at Atlanta: Fire up that Dawsonville pool hall siren

It had been 44 races since that famous siren had sounded at the Dawsonville pool hall. Saturday night, it roared back to life after a major victory from its native son.

Georgia native Chase Elliott ended a 44-race winless streak Saturday night, passing Brad Keselowski on the final lap to win the NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 at Echo Park Speedway.

The victory, his second at EchoPark and 20th of his career, also marked the first event of the NASCAR Cup Series in-season challenge. Elliott crossed the finish line 0.168 seconds ahead of Keselowski and 0.170 seconds ahead of teammate Alex Bowman, who finished third.

Elliott advanced to the second round of the five-race in-season tournament, eliminating first-round opponent Austin Dillon, who finished 20th.

The race featured 46 lead changes among 13 drivers. Elliott credited a push from Bowman on the final two laps for stranding Keselowski without help for a final charge.

“Unbelievable… unbelievable. How about that? Are you kidding me?” Elliott said, showing uncharacteristic emotion. “I’ve never in my life… This is unbelievable. Thank you, guys, so much. What a special car, and just a huge thanks to NAPA Auto Parts and everything they do for me and to benefit Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Rhealynn Mills designed the fast NAPA Chevrolet tonight, so this was a lot of fun. This right here is something I’ll never forget.”

Elliott acknowledged the circumstances played in his favor.

“Well, I just think that, honestly, all the cards fell on the right places there those last couple laps,” he 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 led 46 laps, including laps 255-259 of 260, and advanced past 21st-place finisher Kyle Busch in the in-season challenge. However, he couldn’t defend against Elliott’s final surge.

“The 9 [Elliott] just had the 48 [Bowman] behind him giving him a huge push, and there was nothing I could do to cover that,” Keselowski said. “When we had our cars linked up at RFK [Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing], we could do the same thing, but we lost that, and it was just kind of a two-on-one, and I fought as hard as I could.”

Tyler Reddick finished fourth, followed by Erik Jones. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Zane Smith, Ty Dillon, Chris Buescher and Carson Hocevar rounding out the top 10.

The 18th event of the Cup Series regular season began with a 14-minute, 34-second delay for light rain after 36 laps, with Joey Logano leading the entire stint from the pole.

After racing resumed on Lap 49, the first of two major wrecks occurred eight circuits later. On Lap 57, Christopher Bell spun near Turns 3 and 4, triggering a seven-car wreck that sent Bell and Ryan Blaney to the garage for repairs.

“I saw a couple guys spinning and slowing,” Blaney said. “I got to the apron and there was really nowhere else for me to go but the apron. I tried to get there and get clear of it, but they kind of came down and got me in the right-rear and I ended up in the fence. There was no missing that one.”

Another significant wreck unfolded on the backstretch after a Lap 69 restart. Buescher lifted to avoid hitting then-leader Elliott, causing the field to accordion behind him, resulting in a 16-car pileup that damaged 22 of the 40 cars. Ross Chastain, William Byron, Daniel Suarez, Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Josh Berry and Corey LaJoie all went to the garage, several on wreckers.

Byron exited in 36th place.

“There wasn’t really a whole lot I could see,” Byron said. “I was kind of catching the No. 22 [Logano] with a little bit of a run. All the guys at the front had pitted during the stage break and cycled to the mid-20s. We were just running a great race in the top five. They all stacked up and at that point, I went right a little bit; the wreck was already happening, and I just kind of got shoved into it.”

The two major incidents had significant implications for the in-season challenge. Top seed Hamlin was upset by 32nd seed Ty Dillon.

“For all you Denny fans out there, I just beat your favorite driver,” Dillon quipped afterward, borrowing one of Hamlin’s signature phrases.

Second-seeded Briscoe was eliminated by close friend Noah Gragson, who finished 25th after surviving the major incidents. Byron lost to Ryan Preece, who finished 15th.

Joining Elliott, Keselowski, Ty Dillon, Preece and Gragson in the second round of the challenge were Bowman, Bubba Wallace, John Hunter Nemechek, Jones, Hocevar, Reddick (eliminating Kyle Larson), AJ Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs and Smith.

The race featured 10 cautions for 68 laps. Logano led twice for a race-high 51 laps before exiting after the Lap 69 crash. Austin Cindric won the first stage. Reddick edged Elliott for the Stage 2 win by 0.001 seconds.

The series moves to Chicago next week for the Chicago Street Race. Alex Bowman is the defending champion of last year’s event.

Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart

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Atlanta Motor Speedway
Hampton, Georgia
Saturday, June 28, 2025

1. (15) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 260.
2. (6) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 260.
3. (9) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 260.
4. (23) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 260.
5. (26) Erik Jones, Toyota, 260.
6. (37) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 260.
7. (8) Zane Smith, Ford, 260.
8. (14) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 260.
9. (13) Chris Buescher, Ford, 260.
10. (30) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 260.
11. (36) Connor Zilisch(i), Chevrolet, 260.
12. (21) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 260.
13. (39) Cody Ware, Ford, 260.
14. (16) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 260.
15. (5) Ryan Preece, Ford, 260.
16. (38) BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 260.
17. (11) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 260.
18. (32) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 260.
19. (7) Cole Custer, Ford, 260.
20. (12) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 260.
21. (29) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 260.
22. (24) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 258.
23. (22) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 257.
24. (35) Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, 257.
25. (27) Noah Gragson, Ford, 252.
26. (19) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 241.
27. (17) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 237.
28. (20) Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 223.
29. (40) David Starr(i), Ford, Accident, 184.
30. (28) Christopher Bell, Toyota, Steering, 114.
31. (33) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, Accident, 72.
32. (2) Josh Berry, Ford, Accident, 70.
33. (34) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, Accident, 69.
34. (31) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, Accident, 69.
35. (10) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, Accident, 69.
36. (1) Joey Logano, Ford, Accident, 69.
37. (18) William Byron, Chevrolet, Accident, 69.
38. (4) Austin Cindric, Ford, Accident, 68.
39. (25) Corey LaJoie(i), Ford, Accident, 68.
40. (3) Ryan Blaney, Ford, Accident, 56.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 111.792 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hours, 34 Minutes, 54 Seconds.
Margin of Victory: 0.168 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 10 for 68 laps.
Lead Changes: 46 among 13 drivers.