What Happened?
Chase Elliott overtook Brad Keselowski in turn 1 on the final lap at EchoPark Speedway on Saturday night (June 28) to win at his home track. Merely inches behind Keselowski was Alex Bowman in third, who was followed by Tyler Reddick and Erik Jones in fourth and fifth, respectively.
The victory is Elliott’s second in his home state of Georgia and his first of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.
What Really Happened?
No fuel-saving, half throttle 60-lap ride arounds. No two-by-two trains where nobody can pass for 50 laps. It even included one big fat Big One and a last-lap pass for the lead.
That’s what superspeedway racing used to look like.
Isn’t it ironic that some of the best superspeedway racing occurring in the modern day is at a non-superspeedway track?
EchoPark – let’s agree to call it Atlanta from now on – was once lamented as a great loss for the 1.5-mile lover community when it was repaved and turned into a drafting track in 2022.
Even after its first race, one that saw a record number of lead changes, many didn’t like the new version of the track. Many said it was artificial racing and wasn’t true to the history of Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Since then, however, this track has become one of the most popular on the NASCAR circuit. To some, it’s the best on the calendar. Even to the most cantankerous race fan, you have to admit you can see why.
With multiple grooves, three-wide moments that make you hold your breath and drivers running full-throttle in an honest-to-God effort to actually pass the car in front of them, Atlanta displays the type of racing that Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway are supposed to.
The ending wasn’t just 30 cars running side-by-side with the top two hoping to get any speck of draft that might give them an inch of an edge over second place, either.
Nay, this last-lap pass was a well-timed and bold move for the lead.
Bravo, Atlanta.
Who Stood Out?
Elliott may not have had the most laps led of the night – heck, he didn’t even have the second most – but he certainly had the hometown crowd on his side, and they let him know.
In the final laps of the event, it was a three-way battle for the lead between Elliott, Keselowski and Bowman with the trio shuffling the lead back and forth for a number of laps.
Finally, right after taking the white flag, the No. 9 moved to the inside to take the lead from the No. 6 of Keselowski and didn’t look back.
However, while Elliott was victorious, you can’t help but give a nod toward that bright orange RFK Racing car of Keselowski.
The MIchigan native led 46 laps of the 260-lap event – the second most of the night.
Keselowski has knocked on the door of a win at the Atlanta intermediate circuit ever since its reconfiguration, with what is now a second runner-up finish that was the result of a last-lap pass. In fact, you could say the same at almost all of the drafting tracks nowadays.
However, Keselowski, who sits 28th in the playoff standings at a whopping 122 points behind the cutoff, could have really used a win to put his mind at ease.
In fact, he isn’t alone. With a 23-car pileup that took out many of the strong contenders early on, many of the top 10 consisted of underdog drivers that were looking for a much-needed playoff-entry win. Drivers such as Erik Jones in fifth, Zane Smith in seventh and Carson Hocevar, who was involved in said crash, had that opportunity slip away.
Who Fell Flat?
All three Team Penske cars and their Wood Brothers Racing affiliate entry have led a combined 701 laps at the 1.5-mile Atlanta track since its reconfiguration in 2022. That amounts to 33.67% – barely more than a third – of the total laps ran by the Cup Series since then.
Add on an additional two wins from the team’s elder statesman Joey Logano plus the fact that all four cars swept the top four qualifying positions in Friday’s qualifying session, and you can see why many considered the Penske outfit the favorite heading into the Saturday night main event.
Yet none of them even finished in the top 35 – the first time for the three Penske team cars since Daytona in summer 2018.
It was all thanks to that dreaded lap 69 pileup that involved a whopping 23 cars in a single chaotic and bracket-busting melee.
After leading for a combined 63 laps and winning stage one with Austin Cindric, the trio of Penske Fords had recently pitted and were in the back of the pack when the crash erupted. Cindric, Logano, Ryan Blaney and even satellite teammate Josh Berry were collected and immediately out of the event.
They were certainly not the only favorite involved, either.
How ironic it is to see the mastermind behind the NASCAR In-Season Bracket Challenge knocked out as the No. 1 seed in the very first week.
Denny Hamlin may not have been the favorite to win at Atlanta on Saturday night, but it probably wasn’t farfetched to think he wouldn’t have much issue beating his opponent Ty Dillon in the tournament’s first round.
Well, this isn’t basketball, and sometimes these drafting races have other plans in store. Things such as a 23-car crash that collects the No. 1 seed of the bracket but not his rival.
That’s right, in a shocking turn of events, Hamlin is already out of the tournament that he took part in creating. It’s led to many destroyed brackets – mine included – and also one golden soundbite from the triumphant Dillon.
Paint Scheme of the Race
RFK Racing has done a pretty stellar job of promoting its brands in a fun way on social media in the past, but probably not as well as it did this weekend with popular cereal brand Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
Chris Buescher‘s No. 17 Mustang – or the “Cinnadustang” as RFK called it – wasn’t the best design that’s adorned one of RFK’s cars, but a bright purple secondary with its commonly used reflective numbers made it stand out pretty easily under the Atlanta lights.
Plus, its toast crunch characters hiding around the car within its design made for some pretty hilarious content.
And that’s what made it the most popular on Saturday. Its design wasn’t legendary by any means, but its marketing and social media content made it memorable.
What’s Next?
For the third time in history, NASCAR visits the Chicago street course for its annual street race, the Grant Park 165.
The field will race through the famous Grant Park on Sunday, July 6. with coverage being brought live on TNT and Max beginning at 2 p.m. ET.
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT