HAMPTON - A previous NASCAR Cup Series champion and 19-time winner going into last weekend, Dawsonville’s Chase Elliott has had plenty of memorable wins as a driver.
However, the second-generation racer is likely to have had few celebrations like the one on Saturday night at EchoPark Speedway, previously known as Atlanta Motor Speedway, during the Quaker State 400.
Elliott’s last-lap pass of Brad Keselowski snapped a 44-race winless streak, much to the delight of a raucous crowd that celebrated as Elliott took the checkered flag for his second career win at the track.
“Just to win a race is nice in general. I’m not going to go picky whether it’s wild or boring. It was nice to come out on the good end of that. It could have been one of five of us, five or six of us, there at the end,” Elliott said. “I think for me, fortunately, the runs just really timed up at the perfect time. We were able to do something with them. I’m proud of race wins, whether they’re wild or boring or lucky or whatever, anywhere in between.”
Elliott’s career began with racing at tracks like the speedway’s quarter-mile in Bandoleros and Legends cars, or at venues like Crisp Motorsports Park in Cordele. So, any win — especially in front of fans from Elliott’s home state — is liable to stoke emotion.
All of that spilled out on Saturday night as fans chanted Elliott’s name before he briefly went into the stands to celebrate prior to a longer-than-usual time celebrating in victory lane prior to his post-race media availability.
“To see them that excited after the race for me, it was crazy. It was crazy. It was surreal,” a normally reserved Elliott said. “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.”
As dramatic as the race’s conclusion was, with 46 lead changes among 13 drivers, it got off to a rather calm start in the first 50 laps, part of which included a brief delay for rain.
The serenity didn’t last.
A lap 57 wreck began with Christopher Bell being turned sideways in turns three and four, involving seven cars.
It was hardly the end of the night’s carnage. With the field bunched up on a restart on lap 69, Chris Buescher lifted off the gas to avoid Elliott, who was leading at the time. The result was a stacked-up field behind, sending cars slamming and banging into one another in a quagmire of twisted sheet metal.
All told, 22 of the race’s 40 cars were involved in some way, going so far as to cause a traffic jam of tow trucks in the garage as damaged vehicles were taken to head home after an early exit.
“We were just running a great race in the top five,” said William Byron, among the drivers whose night ended early. “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.”
Elliott remained a factor from that point on. He may not have led the most laps on Saturday, as Joey Logano paced the field a total of 51 times. But typical of Elliott’s season so far — in which he has failed to finish worse than 20th each week in addition to five top-five finishes — the No. 9 Chevrolet managed to run at or near the front.
This time, Elliott cashed in during a race in which he also finished second in the race’s second stage prior to the final stage, where a late run on the inside with a well-timed push from behind by teammate Alex Bowman surged Elliott to the lead for the win, denying Keselowski the win.
“We’ve had some good runs. We’ve put together some great races; had some good finishes,” Elliott said. “Just had ourselves in the hunt (Saturday), and the cards fell our way. The goal every week is to just keep yourself in the hunt, be right there in the mix.”