The NASCAR Cup Series was at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) on Saturday night for the running of the Quaker State 400, which saw Chase Elliott make a last-lap pass around Brad Keselowski to win at his home track.
How the Quaker State 400 unfolded at EchoPark Speedway
Joey Logano led the field to green for the 260-lap, 400-mile race at the 1.54-mile track just outside Atlanta. The race went caution-free for the opening 36 laps before rain halted the action on Lap 37 and eventually brought out the red flag for 14:34.
Shortly after the Lap 49 restart, the first incident of the night took place on Lap 57. February Atlanta winner Christopher Bell got loose in Turn 3 and lost control, collecting Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, AJ Allmendinger, Bubba Wallace and Xfinity Series rookie Connor Zilisch. That concluded Stage 1 under caution, with Austin Cindric claiming the stage win.
The following restart on Lap 69 wiped out over half the field when John Hunter Nemechek and Denny Hamlin got together inside the top-10. Nemechek bounced off the outside wall, while Hamlin spun into oncoming traffic. Among the notables involved were Ross Chastain, Cindric, Larson, Brad Keselowski, Busch, Chase Briscoe, Josh Berry, Logano, William Byron, Alex Bowman, Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suarez.
After a nearly 10 minute red flag for cleanup, the racing resumed and featured numerous battles for the lead before Riley Herbst spun from fifth off Turn 4 on Lap 110 and came up the track into Todd Gilliland. Stage 2 came down to a thrilling battle between Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott as Reddick prevailed by 0.001 seconds.
The final stage could not get in a rhythm with cautions for Shane van Gisbergen with 85 laps to go and a spin down the backstretch with 76 laps remaining from Wallace, who was running 12th at the time. Three more cautions followed suit, notably for Justin Haley, who was spun by Ty Dillon from fifth with 34 laps to go.
Chase Elliott surges late to win thrilling race at EchoPark Speedway: Full finishing order and results
Despite running fifth with five laps to go, Elliott advanced his way to the front in the closing laps, getting a big push from Bowman to clear Keselowski for the lead in Turn 2 on the final lap. As Bowman and Keselowski battled for second behind him, Elliott drove away to win by 0.168 seconds over Keselowski. Elliott, who led 41 laps in the race, picked up his first win of the 2025 season, his second at EchoPark Speedway, the 20th of his career and snapped a 44-race winless streak in points-paying races, dating back to his win at Texas Motor Speedway in April of 2024.
Only four of the 40 drivers in the field were not involved in an incident on Saturday night, leading to multiple upsets in the first race of the new In-Season Challenge. Hamlin, the top overall seed in the challenge, received significant damage in the Lap 69 Big One and finished 31st. His first-round opponent, 32nd overall seed Ty Dillon, finished eighth and eliminated him from the five-race tournament.
Quaker State 400 finishing position | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
Winner | Chase Elliott | 51 |
2nd | Brad Keselowski | 45 |
3rd | Alex Bowman | 41 |
4th | Tyler Reddick | 43 |
5th | Erik Jones | 38 |
6th | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 36 |
7th | Zane Smith | 33 |
8th | Ty Dillon | 34 |
9th | Chris Buescher | 36 |
10th | Carson Hocevar | 33 |
11th | Connor Zilisch | 0 |
12th | AJ Allmendinger | 25 |
13th | Cody Ware | 24 |
14th | Ty Gibbs | 23 |
15th | Ryan Preece | 22 |
16th | BJ McLeod | 0 |
17th | Kyle Larson | 20 |
18th | Michael McDowell | 19 |
19th | Cole Custer | 18 |
20th | Austin Dillon | 17 |
21st | Kyle Busch | 16 |
22nd | Bubba Wallace | 16 |
23rd | Justin Haley | 14 |
24th | Shane van Gisbergen | 20 |
25th | Noah Gragson | 12 |
26th | John Hunter Nemechek | 14 |
27th | Todd Gilliland | 10 |
28th | Riley Herbst | 9 |
29th | David Starr | 0 |
30th | Christopher Bell | 7 |
31st | Denny Hamlin | 6 |
32nd | Josh Berry | 9 |
33rd | Ross Chastain | 4 |
34th | Daniel Suarez | 3 |
35th | Chase Briscoe | 2 |
36th | Joey Logano | 9 |
37th | William Byron | 8 |
38th | Austin Cindric | 11 |
39th | Corey LaJoie | 0 |
40th | Ryan Blaney | 1 |
The Cup Series shifts its focus to the streets of Chicago for the running of the Grant Park 165 on Sunday, July 6 (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Bowman is the defending race winner. It will be the second race of the In-Season Challenge, with the field narrowed from 32 to 16 drivers.