Georgia’s Chase Elliott Snaps 44-Race Winless Streak At EchoPark Speedway
by Hunter Thomas June 29, 2025 1 commentHAMPTON, Ga. – Chase Elliott snapped a 44-race winless streak after pulling off a last-lap pass to win the Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart at EchoPark Speedway on Saturday night.
The last time the Dawsonville, Ga. native vistied Victory Lane was June 2024 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. On Saturday at EchoPark Speedway, Elliott started the race in 15th, finished ninth in Stage 1 and second in Stage 2. On the final lap, Elliott pulled underneath Brad Keselowski in Turn 1 and passed by to secure the lead. As Keselowsi and Alex Bowman battled for second, Elliott strengthened his lead and held on to win.
“Yeah, grateful to have experienced that,” Elliott said. “Something I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Winning at home was incredible the first time. They feel different. But this one, Saturday night under the lights, been a while since we won, just getting ourselves a win and advancing up on the Playoff thing. Just all the things that have come with this, that one was up there, for sure. Yeah, just grateful to have experienced it.”
The victory marked his second NASCAR Cup Series win at his home track. Following the race, the crowd went wild as Elliott celebrated on the frontstretch. The driver of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 NAPA/Children’s Chevrolet believes it was one of the loudest crowds he has heard in his career.
“Yeah, to see them that excited after the race for me, it was crazy,” Elliott said. “It was crazy. It was surreal. I don’t really know how else to describe it. It’s just one of those moments you wish you could bottle up, get it out every now and again, relive it.”
Keselowski prevailed to finish runner-up. The RFK Racing driver now has two top-five finishes on the season. The No. 6 Consumer Cellular Ford is still searching for consistency, but a ninth at Pocono Raceway last weekend and a strong finish at EchoPark Speedway is a good start.
“The 9 just had the 48 behind him giving him a huge push and there was nothing I could do to cover that,” Keselowski said. “When had our cars linked up at RFK 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.”
Bowman finished third in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Ally Chevrolet. The finish is his fourth top-five finish of the season and his second in the past three races.
“I needed to not be in the lead as early as I was,” Bowman said. “I felt like whoever was leading was kind of a sitting duck there at the end with how good everyone’s cars were driving. I just got shuffled back. We were coming back through the field and got back to third.”
Tyler Reddick and Erik Jones rounded out the top-five. Completing the top-10 was Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Zane Smith, Ty Dillon, Chris Buescher and Carson Hocevar.
Austin Cindric won Stage 1, and Reddick won Stage 2.
There were 46 lead changes among 13 drivers. Team Penske’s Joey Logano led a race high of 51 laps.
The caution flew on 10 occasions for 68 laps. A massive, 23-car accident occurred the backstretch on Lap 70. The chaos ignited when Denny Hamlin was turned in front of the field, and then half the field piled in.
“All of us where in the top line pushing off of turn two and some zigged and some zagged and most crashed, so I don’t know,” Hamlin said. “I was on the bumper on the 42 (John Hunter Nemechek). He was on the bumper of somebody else in front of him and we all kind of, you know, speedway pushing, zigging and zagging, and we all crashed, so it’s just part of it, and now we go and watch the rest of the race.”
William Byron leads the standings by 37 points over Elliott.
The NASCAR Cup Series will visit the streets of Chicago on Sunday, July 6 for the Grant Park 165. Live coverage will broadcast on TNT at 2 p.m. ET.
Photo Credit: Mitchell White/TheFourthTurn.com
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