Lexington, NC (June 28, 2025) – With a strong Kaulig Racing Mark III Chevrolet, Ty Dillon earned a season-best finish of eighth on Saturday night at EchoPark Speedway.
“Our Mark III Camaro was awesome,” said Ty Dillon. “I have to thank Matt Kaulig and Chris Rice for giving me an opportunity of a lifetime. These are the best cars I’ve ever driven and we’re building confidence and momentum week in and week out. We’ve had a lot of speed this year and just haven’t gotten the results, and it’s nice to get the result on a day like today. We’re building confidence and this is a great start to continue our climb.”
Starting the race from the 14th position, one of his best starts of the season, Dillon maintained his position in the top 20 throughout the stage before finishing the opening stage in 13th. The team pitted for right-side tires and fuel, but unfortunately, was tagged with a pit road violation relegating Dillon deep in the field. Avoiding the caution on the opening lap of Stage 2, Dillon was able to avoid the mayhem and start his march back in to the top 20 and eventually the top 10. With a fast Chevrolet, Dillon ran as high as third late in the race before crossing the finish line in eighth place.
“We started the weekend strong with a really good qualifying performance,” said Kaulig Racing Technical Director Mike Cook. “We really didn’t get to race in the Spring race because we had a flat tire and kind of ended our day early, so we didn’t know what to expect. It really shows how far this team has come and brought everything together. Mexico was a great race for us as well, building off that momentum. Ty ran pretty much in the top 10 all day and was competitive. He overcame some fuel issues today and got back in the top 10 and was fighting hard. Just really happy with where we ended the day.”
Continuing to grow this season, the No. 10 Kaulig Racing team has shown speed and contended with strong runs, but needed to connect the pieces to earn a solid finish. With his eighth-place finish, Dillon earned his best finish of the season for his first top 10 and seventh top-20 finish of the year.
“We had a good car from when we unloaded yesterday and actually managed to pit the whole race together, which we haven’t been able to do for the last month or so,” said crew chief Andrew Dickeson. “We’re really excited to build some momentum for this team and kick start the next part of the season.”
For the first ever In-Season Challenge, Dillon advances to the second round after beating the No. 1 seed, Denny Hamlin. Dillon will now take on Brad Keselowski in the second round at the Chicago Street Course.
The NASCAR Cup Series now heads to the streets of Chicago for the Grant Park 165 on Sunday, July 6, at 3:30 p.m. ET, live on TNT Sports. The race will be broadcast on the Motor Racing Network and SIRIUS XM’s NASCAR Channel.
About Kaulig Racing
Kaulig Racing™ is a full-time, multi-car NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) and NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) team, owned by award winning entrepreneur, Matt Kaulig. Established in 2016, Kaulig Racing™ has earned 27 NXS wins, made the NXS Playoffs consecutively each season since the playoff system started, and won two regular-season championships. In 2021, the team competed in select NCS events, before expanding to a two-car, full-time NCS team in 2022 and adding a third, part-time entry during the 2023 season. Since its first NCS start in 2021, the team has earned two wins. Kaulig Racing is currently fielding two full-time entries in the NCS and continues to field three full-time NXS entries. To learn more about the team, visit kauligracing.com.
Quaker State 400 – EchoPark Speedway Hampton, Ga. – June 28, 2025
AUSTIN CINDRIC No. 2 MENARDS/QUAKER STATE FORD MUSTANG START: 4TH STAGE 1: 1ST STAGE 2: 38TH FINISH: 38TH POINTS: 15TH RACE RUNDOWN: Austin Cindric and the No. 2 Menards/Quaker State Ford Mustang Dark Horse team asserted themselves as early contenders, running inside the top five throughout the opening stint of Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway before a Stage 2 incident ended their night. Cindric rolled off from the fourth position after all three Team Penske cars and the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing entry locked out the top four starting spots in qualifying. The quartet held steady up front through the opening 20 laps, controlling the early pace of the race. Running second on Lap 36, Cindric reported the No. 2 Ford was tight finishing the corner and needed more security to maintain entry speed as light rain brought out the caution, prompting a brief red flag period. When the race returned to yellow-flag conditions, Cindric and teammate Joey Logano stayed out, restarting on the front row. Cindric surged to the lead on the restart and traded the top spot with Logano a couple times as the outside and inside lanes swapped momentum. A caution for a multi-car incident with three laps remaining in Stage 1 ended the segment, with Cindric scored atop the leaderboard, accumulating valuable points. Cindric noted the car felt better in clean air before pitting for four tires, fuel and a small adjustment to aid stability. He restarted 17th to begin Stage 2, but just 10 laps later, the 26-year-old driver was involved in a multi-car crash that resulted in terminal damage and ended his night with a 38th-place finish.
CINDRIC’S THOUGHTS: “A lot of cars wrecking in the middle of the straightaway, which here you kind of more expect it in the middle of the corners, but maybe just a push gone wrong. It’s hard to say. I had a small chance to get through a gap there, but obviously it didn’t work out. It’s a shame. Obviously, we had a super fast Quaker State/Menards Ford Mustang. We wanted to keep the thing out front. I was looking forward to it because we got back in traffic with staying out to win the stage, but I was looking forward to see what our car was going to do in dirty air and see what final adjustments we needed to make and have that opportunity to learn there. It’s just a shame and a shame for everybody at Team Penske bringing such fast cars and all of them wreck out.”
RYAN BLANEY No. 12 ADVANCE AUTO PARTS FORD MUSTANG START: 3RD STAGE 1: 40TH STAGE 2: 40TH FINISH: 40TH POINTS: 7TH RACE RUNDOWN: Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse were collected in a multi-car incident on lap 57 to bring an abrupt end to their run in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400. Blaney took the green flag from third to begin the 260-lap event and maintained top-five pace before rainfall brought the field to a stop on lap 42. Following a short delay, Blaney hit pit road for four tires and a round of adjustments prior to restarting with 12 laps remaining in Stage 1. With under five laps to go in the opening segment, a multi-car incident unraveled in turn three ahead of Blaney – who darted to the apron in an attempt to avoid the wreck – but was clipped in the right rear by the No. 3 and turned into the outside wall in turn four, ultimately bringing an end to the 12 team’s night.
BLANEY’S THOUGHTS: “I saw a couple guys spinning and slowing. 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.”
JOEY LOGANO No. 22 AUTOTRADER FORD MUSTANG START: 1ST STAGE 1: 3RD STAGE 2: 34TH FINISH: 35TH POINTS: 11TH RACE RUNDOWN: After earning his 32nd-career NASCAR Cup Series pole Friday afternoon, Joey Logano and the No. 22 Autotrader Ford Mustang Dark Horse’s run in the Quaker State 400 came to a halt after getting collected in a 19-car incident during the opening laps of Stage 2. Logano led a majority of the opening, 60-lap stage with his teammates in tow before rainfall brought out the red flag on lap 42. Following a brief delay, Logano and teammate Austin Cindric took the restart from the front row with 12 laps to go in Stage 1 and jockeyed for the lead before a caution with four laps remaining saw Logano scored third as the segment ended under caution. A four tire stop during the stage break resulted in Logano taking the restart from 16th before the No. 11 was sent spinning from the top lane and into the rest of the field on the backstretch to set off the biggest incident of the night, collecting the No. 22 in the process. Logano was able to drive the Autotrader Ford back to pit road, but the damage sustained was ultimately deemed terminal as the 22 team’s night came to an end.
LOGANO’S THOUGHTS: “Basically, what I saw there, I didn’t realize there were that many cars in it, but it wrecked the whole field. I still don’t know exactly how it started, but it was total chaos. Cars were sideways and on the brakes. I got hit from every corner possible. I was right in the middle of the whole thing. It’s a real bummer. What do you do? It’s just part of the game sometimes. You get caught up in something you couldn’t do anything about. The Autotrader Mustang wasn’t too bad. It had speed. We were going to have to work on handling, no doubt, but it hurts to see so many of our cars – all of them were lights out – none of them are even running anymore.”
The NASCAR Cup Series returns to the streets of Chicago for the Grant Park 165 on Sunday, July 6. Coverage from the Chicago Street Course begins at 2:00 p.m. ET on TNT and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Chevrolet Team Rebound From Two Laps Down to Finish 20th at Echo Park Speedway
Finish: 20th Start: 12th Points: 26th
“We had a fast No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Chevrolet tonight in Atlanta. We qualified decent and raced in the top-10 for most of Stage 1. Unfortunately, at the end of the stage the No. 20 car got loose and collected us. We had major body damage and that ruined our night. We made up two laps with a damaged car and finish 20th. Proud of the effort and we have something to work with for our next speedway race.” -Austin Dillon
Kyle Busch and the No. 8 SENIX Tools Chevrolet Team Salvage Decent Finish Following Wreck at Echo Park Speedway
Finish: 21st Start: 29th Points: 20th
“Challenging night for the SENIX Tools Chevrolet team in Atlanta. We got caught up in two wrecks before the halfway point of the race. Our Chevy took a hard hit to the nose. Heavy damage to the splitter and the right-front caused us to lose a significant amount of speed. From that point on we were just doing what we could. We did everything we could to try and get some speed back in it. Good effort. Just not enough.” -Kyle Busch
RICK WARE RACING Quaker State 400 Date: June 28, 2025 Event: Quaker State 400 (Round 18 of 36) Series: NASCAR Cup Series Location: EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Georgia (1.54-mile oval) Format: 260 laps, broken into three stages (60 laps/100 laps/100 laps)
Race Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet) Stage 1 Winner: Austin Cindric of Team Penske (Ford) Stage 2 Winner: Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing (Toyota)
RWR Finish:
● Cody Ware (Started 39th, Finished 13th / Running, completed 260 of 260 laps) ● Corey LaJoie (Started 25th, Finished 39th / Accident, completed 68 of 260 laps)
RWR Points:
● Cody Ware (36th with 133 points) ● Corey LaJoie (N/A… running a limited schedule in 2025 with EchoPark Speedway marking just his fourth start of season)
RWR Notes:
● Ware earned his first top-15 and fourth top-25 of the season. It was his first top-15 and third top-25 in 10 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at EchoPark Speedway.
● This was Ware’s best finish so far this season. His previous best was 24th, earned March 9 at Phoenix Raceway.
● Ware’s 13th-place result bettered his previous best finish at EchoPark Speedway – 23rd in July 2022.
Race Notes:
● Chase Elliott won the Quaker State 400 to score his 20th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his second at EchoPark Speedway. His margin over second-place Brad Keselowski was .168 of a second.
● There were 10 caution periods for a total of 68 laps.
● Only 21 of the 40 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● William Byron remains the championship leader after EchoPark Speedway with a 42-point advantage over second-place Kyle Larson.
Sound Bites:
“For the season we’ve been having, 13th place is a really solid way to bounce back and have that just to build off of for Chicago and Sonoma. Just thankful to Jacob Companies for helping us put together a fast Ford Mustang Dark Horse tonight. We just want to build off this and I’m just thankful to the team that’s just never given up and continues to help us build these racecars, and we’ll keep getting after it. Our car was definitely good on the on the long side of a run, so I was a little worried to see how it would play out with a fresh set of tires, but I think we were able to maintain and scratch out a few more spots there at the end. I wish we could’ve gotten a little more racy, but when it got single file, it was a little bit harder to get those runs we were having early on. But, all in all, I mean, we can’t be upset with that race.” – Cody Ware, driver of the No. 51 Jacob Construction Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“It’s hard to even say what we had. I feel like our Schluter Systems Ford Mustang was pretty good. We just were trying to get it tuned in for the conditions here tonight and we were just chipping away at a little bit of track position and got caught up in the ‘Big One.’ Really unfortunate, no more than we’ve been able to race this year. We’ve had strong runs and get caught up late, whether it was the Daytona 500 leading some laps. Atlanta, we had a strong car, then you know, turned around here. So, it’s just frustrating because these guys work so hard. I hate that we didn’t deliver Rick (Ware) 8and that 01 team a good run because those guys worked really hard on this car and it showed in qualifying. I don’t know, we’ll lick the wounds and get ‘em next time.” – Corey LaJoie, driver of the No. 01 Schluter-Systems Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Grant Park 165 on Sunday, July 6 on the streets of downtown Chicago. The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by TNT and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
NASCAR CUP SERIES ECHOPARK SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT JUNE 28, 2025
Elliott Grabs First Win of the Season at EchoPark Speedway
In front of a hometown crowd, Chase Elliott and the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team earned their first trip to victory lane of the season in NASCAR’s top division – taking the checkered flag in the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway. The victory is Elliott’s 20th victory in 340 career starts, with the triumph marking his second at the 1.54-mile Georgia venue.
With 18 points-paying races complete, Chevrolet has earned highest number of early playoff berths thus far with Elliott becoming the manufacturer’s fifth different winner this season. Chevrolet’s fifth win on the reconfigured EchoPark Speedway surface continues the Bowtie brand’s stellar record on drafting-style tracks in the Next Gen era, with Elliott’s trip to victory lane marking the manufacturer’s 13th win in 22 races on the configuration.
Taking the green flag for the 18th race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, a brigade of Team Chevy drivers began the march up towards the front. Led by the reigning DAYTONA 500 Champion, William Byron, six drivers from three different Chevrolet organizations found themselves in the top-13 of the running order before looming precipitation forced the race under red flag conditions.
Following a brief delay, the race resumed with 12 laps remaining in the opening stage. With a majority of the lead pack electing track position for the race to the end of the stage, Byron was leading a strong contingency of Team Chevy drivers in the top-10 when Christopher Bell loss control of his car, ultimately bringing out the caution to end the stage. The two-time winner at the 1.54-mile Georgia venue earned fourth-place stage points and led the manufacturer to half of the top-10 of the running order to end Stage One. Showing early speed in their Chevrolet-powered machines, Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon were among the handful of cars that were en route to a strong points run in the opening stage, but were collected in Bell’s incident to force an uphill battle for the remainder of the race.
Chaos ensured on the opening lap of Stage Two when a wreck at the front of the field ended in a stack-up of nearly half the field. Among those involved included Team Chevy’s William Byron, Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez, who sustained too much damage to return to the race. Following a front-row position to start Stage Two, Georgia native, Chase Elliott, kept his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet near the front of the pack before closing out the stage in a side-by-side battle with Tyler Reddick – ultimately taking the green-white checkered flag for second-place stage points by a mere .001 second margin.
Despite damage from the Stage Two wreck, Blake Harris and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team continued to go to work on their Chevrolet to give Alex Bowman a steady climb up through the field, with the team earning a hard fought fourth-place points in Stage Two. Remaining steady in the top-10 through much of the final stage, the 32-year- old Tucson, Arizona, native went on to collect his fourth top-five finish of the season.
Making just his third career start in NASCAR’s top division, Trackhouse Racing’s Connor Zilisch navigated his No. 87 Chevrolet through a calamity-filled race to take the checkered flag with an 11th-place finish.
TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS: POS. DRIVER
1st – Chase Elliott 3rd – Alex Bowman 6th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 8th – Ty Dillon 10th – Carson Hocevar
Chevrolet’s season statistics with 18 NASCAR Cup Series races complete:
UP NEXT: The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at the Chicago Street Course with the Grant Park 165 on Sunday, July 6, at 2 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on TNT, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. Post-Race Driver Quotes:
Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident on the opening lap of Stage Two.
Finished: 33rd
“It’s just unfortunate being that early in the race. I couldn’t really see what happened. All of a sudden, they were crashing and our No. 1 Wendy’s Chevrolet got caught up in it. Our Chevy was a four out of 10 to start the race, and then we got it to a seven out of 10 on the first pit stop. We were halfway to where we needed to be. We still had some work to do, but we set ourselves up well there restarting 12th and full of fuel for the start of Stage Two.”
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 20th
“We had a fast No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Chevrolet tonight in Atlanta. We qualified decent and raced in the top-10 for most of Stage 1. Unfortunately, at the end of the stage the No. 20 car got loose and collected us. We had major body damage and that ruined our night. We made up two laps with a damaged car and finish in 20th. Proud of the effort and we have something to work with for our next speedway race.”
Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 21st
“Challenging night for the SENIX Tools Chevrolet team in Atlanta. We got caught up in two wrecks before the halfway point of the race. Our Chevy took a hard hit to the nose. Heavy damage to the splitter and the right-front caused us to lose a significant amount of speed. From that point on we were just doing what we could. We did everything we could to try and get some speed back in it. Good effort. Just not enough.”
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 1st
“Unbelievable… unbelievable. How about that? Are you kidding me? 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 to fast NAPA Chevrolet tonight, so this was a lot of fun. This right here is something I’ll never forget. Thank you guys so much.”
(What made this win so improbable?) “Well I just think that, honestly, all the cards fell on the right places there those last couple laps. 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. And yeah just again, thank you so much for everybody that has made this possible. This is the ninth year of Desi9n to Drive. What an incredible way to celebrate that. Some great partners… Chevrolet, say hey to Mr. Hendrick at home. Thanks for sticking with me, pal, and yeah, just again, thanks to all you guys because this right here is… you can’t dream of this.”
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 12th
“Honestly, not sure how to take the day. We had a really fast LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevy. The car was really good that first stage and I thought we had a real shot at the end of that stage, with the right couple of moves, to get up there and score some points. We got caught up in that wreck but our guys did a good job to fix it and the car still pretty good. I was never really overly comfortable to make some big moves there at the end of the race. I was trying to get myself in position, but just never did a good job of that. Proud of the guys and their effort; definitely improvement from the first race. I would love to have seen what we could have done without the damage, but that’s the way this racing goes. It’s all part of it, and we were able to get a decent finish at the end of that day.”
William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Sidelined by damage sustained in the opening lap of Stage Two.
Finished: 37th
Chaos ensued on the opening lap of Stage Two. What did you see from your perspective?
“There wasn’t really a whole lot I could see. I was kind of catching the No. 22 (Joey 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.
It’s just a bummer that early in the race. I don’t really know what was going on. We were getting up to speed and everyone was throwing a lot of blocks or something, I don’t know. It was fun out there, honestly. The first stage was fun. Handling really mattered. I thought my No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet was good. I thought our team was calling a great race and we were doing everything we could do.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 6th
“We had a shot at it. Obviously taking the lead that late in the race, you have a shot at it. Our No. 47 Hungry Jack Chevrolet was handling really well in the draft. It just didn’t lead very well. That goes back to our qualifying effort. We just have to find some more speed in our race car to be able to get to the lead and not have to throw massive blocks. When we slipped back to third there, I thought maybe if I could just stay there, we would have a shot at it coming to the end, but we just didn’t have enough speed to make another run at it.”
Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 3rd
What more did you need there at the end?
“I needed to not be in the lead as early as I was. 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. We had a really good No. 48 Ally Chevrolet tonight. Happy for the No. 9 team. It’s a big win for them. Proud of everyone at Hendrick Motorsports and we’ll keep on digging.”
Connor Zilisch, No. 87 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 11th
“It was great. It was a kind of battle of attrition a little more than anything. To be running up there that close to the front was awesome. I learned a lot. There’s a lot of things to learn when you’re up there against the guys who are out there winning races. I wish I could have gotten that top-10. We were so close. But I’m looking forward to Watkins Glen. That’s going to be a really good one for us.”
Zilisch on racing on a Superspeedway in a Cup car:
“These cars are so much different (than an Xfinity car). The runs were a lot bigger. Air made a difference here. We were almost never wide-open. It definitely was challenging but at the same time I enjoyed it a lot and got better throughout the race.”
Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 24th
“It was definitely a great run there at the start, getting points in both stages. It was fun being competitive. We made some good moves. Stephen and the guys did a great job making changes and got our No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet better and better. We just got unlucky getting taken out, and then we had damage. But it was really promising to run up front.”
Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident on the opening lap of Stage Two.
Finished: 34th
“The sad part for me was that our No. 99 Quaker State Chevrolet was very good. I was being patient, and I felt like we were coming through the field pretty well during Stage One. I felt like our Chevy had potential. It was the start of Stage Two and we didn’t get to race. It’s a shame. Our team did a very good job with the car and we just got caught up in the mess.”
About General Motors
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Ford Performance Notes and Quotes NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 Saturday, June 28, 2025
Ford Unofficial Finishing Results
2nd – Brad Keselowski 7th – Zane Smith 9th – Chris Buescher 13th – Cody Ware 15th – Ryan Preece 19th – Cole Custer 25th – Noah Gragson 27th – Todd Gilliland 29th – David Starr 32nd – Josh Berry 36th – Joey Logano 38th – Austin Cindric 39th – Corey LaJoie 40th – Ryan Blaney
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang Dark Horse – ANYTHING MORE YOU COULD HAVE DONE THE LAST LAP? “The 9 just had the 48 behind him giving him a huge push and there was nothing I could do to cover that. 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.” DID YOU THINK AT ONE POINT THIS WAS YOUR RACE TO LOSE? “No, not the way these races are done. The cars get too big of a run and it ain’t over til it’s over. Every time I got the lead, I couldn’t seem to get everything to go our way. If we could have gotten a yellow or anything there it certainly would have been helpful, but that didn’t happen.” WHAT DOES THIS FEEL LIKE CONSIDERING YOUR PLAYOFF SITUATION? “I don’t think about that. I just want to win.” ULTIMATELY, IT WAS THE 48 AND 9 WORKING TOGETHER THAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE AT THE END? “Yeah. They were able to work together really well and kind of double up on me at the end and there was nothing I could do.” DOES IT STING? “Every loss stings.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Kroger/Cinnamon Toast Crunch Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was a really solid night for us. This is the best race car we’ve had here since the reconfiguration, so I appreciate everybody working hard to make that our reality tonight. We were up there running strong and I was there at the end. I just needed to keep that track position and a couple cars were able to maneuver a little bit better there at the end.” SO MANY CHANGES FOR THE LEAD WITH ALL THOSE RUNS. HOW DID YOU SEE THOSE CLOSING LAPS PLAY OUT? “We were fast. We were able to work together pretty well. We got far enough in a run where handling was definitely a balance offset for us and I wasn’t able to stay connected as well as I needed to the 6 to keep us out front.” WERE DID YOU WANT TO BE IN THE LAST COUPLE OF LAPS BECAUSE THERE WERE SO MANY PASSES FROM SECOND TO FIRST? “You want to be up front. You want to be leading this thing, but you were a little bit of a sitting duck tonight with some of the runs that came on and with handling the way it was – there were a handful of cars that were able to take tires at the end with no penalty. They just really didn’t have anything to lose and it ended up showing up pretty big for them at the end.”
ZANE SMITH, No. 38 Aaron’s Lucky Dog Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU WERE RIGHT THERE GOING BACK AND FORTH AT THE FRONT. “It was fun to lead some of those final closing laps. I don’t know where it went wrong. I just feel like we went back and forth. Sometimes just one car was clearing me and I’d build my run back up and then go make another charge at it, and then it just kind of seemed like two guys got by me and you’re just not able to have as much throttle time. My runs weren’t quite the same, but, all in all, it was just a really good and a really fast Aaron’s FRM Ford Mustang. It was really cool to have the Lucky Dog scheme back and run up front with it. I’m just proud of the effort, but I wish it panned out a little bit different there.” SURELY YOU LEARNED A LOT FOR THE NEXT TIME WITH BEING AT THE FRONT NEAR THE END. “Yeah, for sure I learned a lot. There are some things we need to work on ultimately – controlling distances. That was my first time really defending the lead with a digital camera. It’s just a lot different with how you see runs coming and so to be bummed out with a top 10 is a good thing. I just feel like that was an opportunity to win and advance, but it’s still a good night for us.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Autotrader Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU JUST SAW THE REPLAY. WHAT DID YOU THINK? “Basically, what I saw there, I didn’t realize there were that many cars in it, but it wrecked the whole field. I still don’t know exactly how it started. It wasn’t the best of replays, but it was total chaos. Cars were sideways and on the brakes. I got hit from every corner possible. I was right in the middle of the whole thing. It’s a real bummer. What do you do? It’s just part of the game sometimes. It’s just the crappy part of our racing sometimes. You get caught up in something you couldn’t do anything about.” WHAT DID YOU SEE? “A lot of smoke and sideways cars, including myself somewhere in that mix. I don’t know exactly what happened. They tried to show me a replay, but I still couldn’t see good enough to see exactly what happened, just when a car gets turned sideways in front of everyone. It’s tight right now like it was getting up to speed. There wasn’t much separation in the field, so once they start checking up everybody just piled in. Just the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s a real bummer. The Autotrader Mustang wasn’t too bad. It had speed. We were gonna have to work on handling, no doubt, but it hurts to see so many of our cars – all four of our cars that were lights out – none of them are even running anymore. It’s a crime.” YOU SAID YESTERDAY YOU DIDN’T FEEL SAFE STARTING UP FRONT WITH HOW THIS RACING CAN GO. THAT PLAYED OUT. “Yeah, you just don’t know exactly what’s gonna happen. If it went green to the end of the stage, you’re looking pretty good. You’ve got track position, but when that caution came out for the rain, it gave everyone the opportunity to flip it. You know at that point you’re gonna pay the piper. You’re gonna have to go to the back, but we felt like it was worth it to try to win the stage because you never know what’s gonna happen. We felt like let’s try to win the stage and, unfortunately, we didn’t pull that off either. We got probably eight points, I think, there, and then that just put us right in the middle of the soup and didn’t even get an opportunity to try to work our way up.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Quaker State Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT DID YOU SEE? “A lot of cars wrecking in the middle of the straightaway, which here you kind of more expect it in the middle of the corners, but maybe just a push gone wrong. It’s hard to say. I had a small chance to get through a gap there, but obviously it didn’t work out. It’s a shame. Obviously, we had a super fast Quaker State/Menards Ford Mustang. We wanted to keep the thing out front. I was looking forward to it because we got back in traffic with staying out to win the stage, but I was looking forward to see what our car was gonna do in dirty air and see what final adjustments we needed to make and have that opportunity to learn there. It’s just a shame and a shame for everybody at Team Penske bringing such fast cars and all of them wreck out.” DID YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED ON REPLAY? “I got to see a front-on shot and it maybe looked like a push going down the back straightaway, kind of midfield, top 10ish, but it’s hard to say. At the end of the day, it doesn’t change a whole lot for me. I’m a big believer in the law of averages and we’ve reset after Talladega and here we are.” ANY CONSOLATION WINNING THE FIRST STAGE? “I guess I can be the happiest of those that aren’t in contention anymore, but, no, not really. I want to go out and win the race. I thought we had a great opportunity to honestly lose track position and feel what our car was gonna be like in heavy traffic. I thought we were decent compared to most of them we were around and it’s taking that chance.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT DID YOU SEE? “A lot of cars. I have no idea really what happened. It looked like they were just pushing each other hard for 8th, 10th, 12th like that and got squirrely. It’s just disappointing getting taken out and having that happen with this many laps left.” HOW MANY BRACKETS DO YOU THINK WERE BUSTED IN THE IN-SEASON CHALLENGE? “I’m sure a lot. I mean, coming here you knew that was probably gonna happen. Everybody thought they had it figured out, but they weren’t planning on that.” ALL THREE PENSKE CARS ARE OUT AND SO ARE YOU. HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT? “It’s tough, but we had the four fastest cars yesterday. We were doing our best to fend off all the battles and work with each other at the beginning. Everyone on our 21 team and everybody at Team Penske have a lot to be proud of for how yesterday and the start of the race went. Unfortunately, we just got swept up in somebody else’s mess.”
COREY LAJOIE, No. 01 Schluter Systems Ford – WHAT DID YOU SEE? “Smoke and then a lot of cracked carbon fiber from my hood being blasted up on my windshield. Watching the replay, I don’t know what in the hell they were doing pushing like that in the straightaway. It’s not really anybody’s fault, but it’s everybody’s fault because you’ve got three pedals in there and I just don’t know where everybody is trying to go. These bumpers are rounded, so you push somebody off-square and you’re gonna wreck them. It’s just unfortunate. I don’t know whose fault it was. It was everybody’s fault because we just caused a big wreck.” HOW WAS YOUR CAR BEFORE THAT? “It was fine. I think that if you somehow flipped and got track position, we could have ran in the top eight. I think it would have been a fight to try to get into that top 12 range, which I think we were capable of doing, but we weren’t able to get that far.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAPPENED? “I got caught up in a wreck. I don’t know. That’s per usual this year. We get caught up in someone else’s mess.” WHAT DID YOU SEE? “I saw a couple guys spinning and slowing. 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.” DID YOU THINK YOU HAD IT CLEARED? “I thought I had it cleared. I really did. I thought I got low enough on the apron to get it clear and try to get through it in time and, honestly, I didn’t even see the 3 when he clipped me. I thought I got past it and then I got clipped. I couldn’t really get any lower by the speed I was doing, trying to, A, get by it with enough speed and, B, try to get as low as I could. I really thought I got by it and just got barely clipped.” HOW DID YOU DROP BACK? HAD YOU JUST PITTED? “Yeah, we pitted and tried to flip the stage. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.”
REDDICK WINS STAGE, LEADS TOYOTA WITH TOP-FIVE FINISH IN ATLANTA Erik Jones continues performance surge, delivers fifth-place run
HAMPTON, Ga. (June 28, 2025) – Tyler Reddick won the second stage and battled for the win late before settling for a fourth-place finish in the NASCAR Cup Series race at EchoPark Speedway on Saturday evening.
Erik Jones had another strong performance as he battled back from multiple incidents during the race to earn his second top-five finish of the season. With his fifth top-15 finish in the last six races, Jones has moved from 30th to 18th in the point standings.
Atlanta was also the first race of the In-Season Tournament. Toyota had five drivers advance to the second round: Reddick, Jones, Ty Gibbs, John Hunter Nemechek and Bubba Wallace.
Toyota GAZOO Racing Post-Race Recap NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) EchoPark Speedway Race 18 of 36 – 400.4 miles, 260 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Chase Elliott*
2nd, Brad Keselowski*
3rd, Alex Bowman*
4th, TYLER REDDICK
5th, ERIK JONES
14th, TY GIBBS
23rd, BUBBA WALLACE
26th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
28th, RILEY HERBST
30th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
31st, DENNY HAMLIN
35th, CHASE BRISCOE
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 Upper Deck Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
How do you describe that racing there at the end?
“We were really solid. Our Upper Deck, Superman Camry was pretty good. Made the wrong move at the wrong time, most of the night. If I sat and waited, I would get shuffled back, just needed to be a little bit smarter with my move on the 6 (Brad Keselowski). I got shuffled too far back to fight truly for the win there, so just disappointing for sure, but it was nice to get a Playoff point and score some points at a superspeedway. Just more and more new winners, so we have to find a way to victory lane.”
Would more Toyotas or more teammates at the end helped?
“No, I just need to make better choices for myself.”
Another strong run. Is it glass half-full with another top-five finish for your team?
“Yeah, I think so. Just good runs since Charlotte. After tonight, to come back and run fifth – we wrecked twice, once on my own and the big wreck at the start – I’m happy with that, and happy with the speed with our Dollar Tree Camry team. It has been a lot of fun to race. It was kind of a weird start – we had to make a lot of changes to the car to fire off, but just really proud of the effort, really proud of what we are doing right now. We’ve made a big climb in points, and we are still going. If we can keep making it better, we are right at the cusp. We are one good step away from really being contenders, and I hope we can take that step.”
In the last seven races you’ve jumped from 30th to 18th in the standings, are you still thinking you can point your way into the Playoffs?
“If we can do this, for sure. It is going to take some perfect races, but we’ve been doing that. We haven’t gotten the finishes here and there, but we have got a lot of stage points through the day and ran well. If we can get some stage points, and get the finishes like this, there is no reason we can’t. Would love to get a win. I thought we had a shot at the end. I just ran out of time, but nice to be in contention for it. I’m getting amped up, running up front and having fun. Road courses have been up-and-down for us, so hopefully they are good the next two, but looking forward to it, either way.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 King’s Hawaiian Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 31st
Do you know what happened?
“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. 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.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 35th
What were they doing with the 19 to try to get you back out? “Yeah, I don’t know how bad our damage was. They were fixing it, and we were about ready to go, and I guess NASCAR came over there and saw that our chassis was broke or bent or something and were like, you can’t go back out. So, kind of a waste of 30 minutes working on it. Just unfortunate night for our Bass Pro Shops Toyota. Kind of missed the balance at the beginning and was behind, and then that big wreck – had nowhere to go. Looking forward to two road courses coming up. I think our road course program has been pretty good. Hopefully a JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) car or a Toyota can win. Just unfortunate day for us.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.
Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of nearly 49 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants. In spring 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina will begin to manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles. With more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, Toyota currently offers 31 electrified options.
Chase Elliott celebrates his victory in the Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart at EchoPark Speedway on June 28, 2025. (Photo credit: Harold Hinson Photography)
HAMPTON, Ga. (June 29, 2025) – Chase Elliott delivered a storybook ending under the lights at EchoPark Speedway, capturing a dramatic victory at his home track in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400.
In front of an energized Georgia crowd, the Dawsonville, Ga., native surged to the front with a last-lap pass on Brad Keselowski to take the checkered flag, earning his first win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season and punching his ticket to the playoffs.
Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, specially designed by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta patient Rhealynn, added an emotional layer to the already dramatic evening. Starting 15th, Elliott methodically worked his way through the field, surviving a race filled with 46 lead changes and 10 cautions to claim the second Atlanta win of his career.
“This is unbelievable,” said Elliott in front of the roaring crowd. “All of the cards fell in the right places in the last couple of laps,” said Elliott. “What a crazy race. It was wild from my seat, but I’m glad we got to run that thing out there to the end.”
The chaos began early, with Joey Logano dominating the first 48 laps before a weather-delayed red flag shook things up. When the race resumed, Austin Cindric edged teammate Logano to take the Stage 1 win. Stage 2 was marred by a massive crash that collected top contenders like Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Logano and Daniel Suárez, while Reddick narrowly beat Elliott to the line. Elliott, unfazed, kept digging.
In the final stage, Elliott cycled to the front on pit strategy, battling with Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman and Keselowski in a restart-heavy sprint to the finish. Zane Smith briefly took the lead with 11 laps to go, but Keselowski regained control with five laps remaining — until Elliott pounced on the final lap.
As the top duo took the white flag and raced to Turn 1, Keselowski threw blocks high and low, trying to protect the lead, but Elliott found an opening to the inside. As the field roared out of Turn 2, Elliott cleared the pack and held the advantage back to the finish line first, delivering a storybook ending for the Georgia-born driver on his home turf. The crowd erupted as Elliott completed his victory lap, celebrating a hard-fought win.
With Elliott’s last lap pass, Keselowki, who led a race-high of 41 laps, settled for second.
“I just got doubled up on. The 48 and 9 cars were able to get together right when it mattered and worked together,” said Keselowski. “One-on-one, I could take them, but two-on-one it was just more than I had. It was a competitive day (for the RFK team), we’re not everywhere we want to be, but we’re making the most of our opportunities.”
Elliott’s teammate Alex Bowman fought his way into third late.
“I needed to lead later. Whoever was up front felt like a sitting duck there at the end,” said Bowman. “I wish it were us in Victory Lane, we had a really fast Ally 48, but I’m super proud of the No. 9 team and happy a Hendrick car got it done. Just gotta keep on digging.”
Tyler Reddick piloted his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota to fourth place.
“I just needed to be smarter with my move on the No. 6, they got us shuffled too far back to be able to fight truly for the win,” said Reddick. “Disappointing for sure, but nice to get some playoff points. More and more new winners, but we have to find a way to get to Victory Lane.”
Erik Jones rounded out the top five, bouncing back from a late-race spin. “It was a great finish, but we just needed some more time. I was picking them off and making moves, taking advantage of it, and trying to stay in line, but we just ran out of time,” Jones said. “We were getting up there and in contention with those guys after spinning, but proud of the day, we made some changes to the car and came back from a couple of wrecks, so a top five is a pretty good day.”
As fireworks lit up the Georgia sky, Elliott celebrated his second career win at EchoPark Speedway, making a bold statement at the halfway point of the 2025 season.
Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart NASCAR Cup Series results Saturday night from EchoPark Speedway:
Chase Elliott
Brad Keselowski
Alex Bowman
Tyler Reddick
Erik Jones
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Zane Smith
Ty Dillon
Chris Buescher
Carson Hocevar
Connor Zilisch
AJ Allmendinger
Cody Ware
Ty Gibbs
Ryan Preece
B.J. McLeod
Kyle Larson
Michael McDowell
Cole Custer
Austin Dillon
Kyle Busch
Bubba Wallace
Justin Haley
Shane van Gisbergen
Noah Gragson
John Hunter Nemechek
Todd Gilliland
Riley Herbst
David Starr
Christopher Bell
Denny Hamlin
Josh Berry
Ross Chastain
Daniel Suárez
Chase Briscoe
Joey Logano
William Byron
Austin Cindric
Corey Lajoie
Ryan Blaney
About EchoPark Speedway:
EchoPark Speedway is a premier entertainment venue located about 30 miles south of Atlanta, Ga.
Since 1960, EchoPark Speedway has been a staple of the NASCAR calendar and currently hosts two weekends of racing in the spring and fall each year. When NASCAR isn’t in town, EchoPark Speedway’s versatile facility hosts an assortment of events that attract visitors from near and far, from Monster Jam to the Georgia State Fair and everything between.
For more information on EchoPark Speedway and to see upcoming events at the facility, visit www.EchoParkSpeedway.com.
Chase Elliott Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
Chase Elliott erased his winless start to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, winning the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway on Saturday, June 2. The victory came following a final-lap overtake on Brad Keselowski and after utilizing teamwork from teammate Alex Bowman.
The 2020 Cup Series champion from Dawsonville, Georgia, led nine times for 41 of 260 scheduled laps. Elliott started in 15th place and endured through a total of 46 lead changes and 10 caution periods. This included two between the conclusion of the first stage period and the start of the second stage period, as multiple competitors were involved in multi-car wrecks.
While racing in second place behind Brad Keselowski prior to the final lap, Elliott had teammate Alex Bowman drafting him. On the final lap, Elliott seized an opportunity. Racing beneath and sliding in front of Keselowski through the first two turns, he assumed the lead. With both Keselowski and Bowman unable to formulate a drafting plan to reel Elliott back in, Elliott maintained the top spot. He led to the frontstretch, scoring his first elusive victory of the year, and celebrating for a second time in front of his home crowd.
On-track qualifying determined the starting lineup on Friday, June 27. Joey Logano notched his first Cup pole position of 2025 with a lap at 178.960 mph in 30.979 seconds. Josh Berry also posted his best qualifying lap at 178.960 mph in 30.979 seconds. However, he was posted to the runner-up starting spot due to being lower in the driver standings compared to Logano.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, pole-sitter Joey Logano gained the first upper hand with a push from teammate Ryan Blaney on the inside lane. This allowed Logano to muscle ahead and move in front of Josh Berry entering the backstretch. Logano and Berry muscled ahead of the field that was stacked amid two drafting lanes through Turns 3 and 4. Logano led the first lap over Berry while teammates Blaney and Austin Cindric battled dead even for third place.
Over the next four laps, the top-three competitors, who included Logano, Berry, and Cindric, managed to pull ahead of the field, running stacked in two drafting lanes. Throughout this process, Logano retained the lead and continued to occupy the top spot through the Lap 10 mark. By then, Berry, Cindric, and Blaney occupied second through fourth, respectively, on the track. Brad Keselowski was in fifth place ahead of Ryan Preece, Zane Smith, Alex Bowman, Cole Custer, and Kyle Larson.
Just past the Lap 20 mark, Logano retained the lead by a tenth of a second over Berry. Blaney, Cindric, and Keselowski continued to follow suit in the top five, respectively. Meanwhile, Chevrolet competitors William Byron and Carson Hocevar carved their way up into the top-10 mark in seventh and ninth, respectively, while Zane Smith dropped out of the top-10 mark.
As a handful of Chevrolet competitors that included Byron, Hocevar, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, and Austin Dillon were mixing up the competition within the top-10 mark, the top-five spots continued to be occupied by Ford competitors, and the event was still led by Logano by Lap 25.
On Lap 37, the event’s first caution flew due to on-track precipitation. At the moment of caution, Logano was scored the leader ahead of Cindric, Berry, Keselowski and Byron. By Lap 43, the field led by Logano was directed to pit road and the event was placed in a red flag period for 14 minutes and 34 seconds. When the red flag lifted and the field returned to the track under a cautious pace, a majority of the field led by Preece pitted for service while the rest led by Logano remained on the track.
The next restart on Lap 48 featured both Logano and Cindric dueling for the lead for a full lap. Cindric, who was leading the outside drafting lane, led the following lap by a mere margin. As the field fanned out to multiple lanes, Cindric gained the upper hand from the outside lane, leading the next two laps. In the process, Cindric tried to go on defensive mode by blocking both teammate Logano on the inside lane and Keselowski from the outside lane. But, Logano would muscle back ahead to reassume the lead on Lap 52.
On Lap 56, the caution flew when Christopher Bell, racing inside the top-10, got sideways on his own in Turn 3. As Bell slid and was hit by Bubba Wallace. Kyle Larson, who was racing behind Bell, also got sideways amid light contact from Austin Dillon. Dillon proceeded to spin down the track and clip Blaney, who hit the Turn 4 outside wall head-on. Allmendinger was also involved in the carnage, making contact with Larson. The rest of the field jammed on the brakes and scrambled to avoid the carnage.
The multi-car wreck in Turn 4 was enough for the first stage period that was scheduled to conclude on Lap 60 to officially conclude under caution. By then, Austin Cindric was awarded his third Cup stage victory of the 2025 season. Keselowski settled in second ahead of Logano, Byron, and Carson Hocevar while Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Berry, rookie Shane van Gisbergen, Elliott, and Bubba Wallace scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, the event featured five lead changes for three different leaders.
Under the stage break, a majority of the front-runners, led by the leader Cindric, pitted while the rest, led by Chase Ellio,t remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 68 as Elliott and Buescher occupied the front row. At the start, Elliott muscled ahead with a strong launch from the inside lane, leading from the first two turns to the backstretch.
Then as the leaders exited the backstretch, the caution returned for a multi-car wreck. It started when a stack-up at the front caused Denny Hamlin, who was racing in the top 10, to get bumped and spin sideways in the middle of the track. In the ensuing chaos, Hamlin collided with Noah Gragson before sliding back up the track and colliding into Cindric and Berry.
In total, 23 competitors were involved. Among those involved included Ross Chastain, Ryan Preece, Logano, Byron, Daniel Suarez, Carson Hocevar, Ryan Preece, Larson, Chase Briscoe, Corey LaJoie, Cody Ware, Keselowski, Justin Haley, Cole Custer, Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, BJ McLeod and Austin Dillon.
The accident was enough for the event to be placed in a second red flag period for more than nine minutes to have the wreckage cleared. When the latest red flag period lifted, the field led by Chase Elliott returned under a cautious pace. A majority of the front-runners, including Elliott, elected to pit. The rest, led by the new leader Buescher, remained on the track.
When the race restarted on Lap 76, Ty Gibbs and Chris Buescher dueled in front of two-stacked lanes through the first two turns and the backstretch. Amid the duel, Gibbs muscled ahead, entering Turns 3 and 4, and led the next lap. Behind, rookie Riley Herbst, who pushed Gibbs, dueled with Buescher for the runner-up spot. Then, van Gisbergen threw a three-wide move to overtake Buescher and battle Herbst for second. As the field fanned out more and jostled for a spot. Gibbs led to the Lap 80 mark as he was pursued by Herbst, Buescher, van Gisbergen and Zane Smith.
At the Lap 90 mark and with the racing at the front intensifying, Buescher, who assumed the lead two laps earlier, was leading. He was ahead of Gibbs, Reddick, Zane Smith, and Chase Elliott. Stenhouse, Gilliland, Bowman, Herbst, and Nemechek were scored in the top 10. Behind, Connor Zilisch, Justin Haley, BJ McLeod, van Gisbergen, and Erik Jones were racing in the top 15 while Keselowski, Preece, Ty Dillon, Larson, and AJ Allmendinger trailed in the top 20.
By Lap 100, Gibbs, who reassumed the lead on Lap 92, was leading ahead of Buescher, Reddick, Herbst and Zane Smith as the top-11 competitors were racing under a second of one another. Three laps later, Stenhouse hit the wall in Turns 3 and 4 after he made contact with Jones, where the former moved up the track and made contact with the latter. Amid Stenhouse’s issues, the driver continued to race straight on the track and the race remained under green flag conditions as Gibbs continued to lead.
Then on Lap 110, the caution flew when rookie Riley Herbst, who was racing in fifth place, got sideways and hit the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4. As Herbst spun, he would be collided into by an oncoming Todd Gilliland. At the moment of caution, Carson Hocevar claimed the free pass position over Wallace. During the caution period, the leaders pitted their respective entries. Following the pit stops, Reddick exited first ahead of Bowman, Haley, Zane Smith, and Buescher while Jones, Ty Dillon, Chase Elliott, Keselowski, and Gibbs followed suit in the top 10.
As the event restarted on Lap 117, Reddick and Bowman engaged in an intense battle for the lead. Reddick led the following two laps since the restart before Bowman assumed the lead for himself by Lap 120. Bowman would proceed to lead by Lap 123 before Buescher carved and challenged the lead for himself.
Despite Buescher leading a single lap on Lap 124, Bowman fought back and held on to the top spot. Bowman proceeded to lead at the halfway mark on Lap 130. Buescher, Reddick, Elliott, and Zane Smith trailed in the top five.
By Lap 140, Buescher, who led eight of the previous 10 laps while battling Bowman, was leading. Bowman, Reddick, Elliott, and Jones followed in the top five. Starting on Lap 141, Bowman assumed the lead. But Elliott navigated to the lead, beginning on Lap 14,7 and led the next two laps before Reddick assumed the top spot on Lap 150.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 160. Reddick, who assumed the lead from Elliott on Lap 158, edged Elliott by a nose to claim his first Cup stage victory of the 2025 season. Chase Elliott settled in second place ahead of Buescher, Bowman, and Jones.
Ty Dillon, van Gisbergen, Zane Smith, Nemechek, and Keselowski were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 22 lead changes for eight different leaders. 21 of 40 starters scored on the lead lap.
During the stage break, the leaders returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Elliott exited pit road first ahead of Buescher, Reddick, Bowman, and Ty Dillon while Nemechek, Keselowski, van Gisbergen, Jones, and Haley followed suit in the top 10.
With 92 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Elliott and Buescher occupied the front row. At the start, Elliott used a push from teammate Bowman on the inside lane to move in front of Buescher entering the backstretch. With Elliott in defensive mode, he would proceed to lead the next lap and the following one with 90 laps remaining while Bowman and Buescher dueled for the runner-up spot in front of a stacked field.
The caution would return with 85 laps remaining due to van Gisbergen spinning on the frontstretch while running inside the top 10. Van Gisbergen’s incident was caused due to contact from Gibbs and Nemechek that turned Nemechek into van Gisbergen and sent the latter spinning. By then, Bowman was leading over Keselowski, Elliott, Buescher, and Jones. During the caution period, some, including the top-three competitors of Bowman, Keselowski, and Elliott, remained on the track while the rest, led by Buescher, pitted.
The next restart with 79 laps remaining featured Bowman receiving a push from teammate Chase Elliott on the inside lane to rocket ahead of Keselowski and lead through first two turns before Elliott got underneath Bowman and dueled with him. Bowman led the next lap and received a big push from Keselowski through the frontstretch to muscle back ahead. Not long after, however, Keselowski dueled with Bowman before he muscled ahead with the lead with 76 laps remaining.
The caution would fly again with 76 laps remaining. Wallace, who received the free pass and cycled back on the lead lap at the conclusion of the second stage period, got loose entering the backstretch. He spun below the track and lightly hit the inside wall while racing in 12th place. During the caution period, some led by Keselowski and including Bowman, Reddick, Chase Elliott, Buescher, Jones pitted. The rest, led by Haley and including Gibbs, Ty Dillon, and Preece, remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Reddick was penalized for driving through too many pit boxes.
The next restart that occurred with 70 laps remaining only lasted four laps before Erik Jones spun in Turn 4. During the following restart with 60 laps remaining, the event remained in green-flag conditions for only two laps before veteran David Starr spun on the frontstretch and had issues nursing his damaged car to pit road.
With the event restarting with 53 laps remaining, Elliott muscled ahead from the outside lane to lead the field before Keselowski got underneath Elliott and led two laps later. In the process, Buescher followed suit, but Elliott dueled with him to retain the runner-up spot. As the field stacked up to two drafting lanes, Keselowski went on defensive mode to fend off both Buescher and Chase Elliott and lead with less than 50 to go.
As the event reached its final 40-lap mark, Keselowski, who led the previous 10 laps, continued to lead ahead of teammate Buescher, Reddick, Haley, and Elliott while Ty Dillon, Gibbs, Bowman, Zane Smith, and Erik Jones trailed in the top 10. Six laps later, the caution returned due to Ty Dillon getting loose, sliding up track and clipping Haley, which sends Haley spinning in front of the field and down the backstretch. During the caution period, some, including the top-five competitors, remained on the track while several led by Stenhouse pitted.
Down to the next restart with 28 laps remaining, Keselowski retained the lead, and he would go into defensive mode as he continued to lead with 25 laps remaining. Despite being overtaken by Zane Smith two laps later, Keselowski reassumed the lead during the following lap and he proceeded to lead with 20 laps remaining. Bowman then tried to slide in front of Keselowski entering the frontstretch with 18 laps remaining. But Keselowski crossed over and reassumed the lead through the frontstretch during the next lap. Bowman, however, executed another move beneath Keselowski and slid in front of him to muscle ahead and lead with 16 laps remaining.
With 15 laps remaining, Keselowski and Bowman dueled through the frontstretch. Keselowski received a push from Zane Smith to muscle back ahead. Two laps later, Zane Smith assumed the lead as Bowman battled Keselowski for second. Bowman then got beneath Smith and both dueled in front of Keselowski through the first two turns and the backstretch. Keselowski then drafted Ford teammate Smith back ahead entering Turns 3 and 4.
Stenhouse, who spent the previous several laps trying to carve his way back to the front, then darted to the front. He got up to second place behind Smith before Bowman stole the runner-up spot from Stenhouse. Amid the endless battles behind, Smith led with 10 laps remaining before Bowman reassumed the lead on the following lap.
Approaching the final seven-lap mark, Smith and Bowman dueled through the frontstretch. But Stenhouse executed a three-wide move to overtake both entering Turn 1 and take the lead. As Stenhouse led, Keselowski battled Smith for second place in front of Reddick and Elliott. Bowman dropped to sixth place. Keselowski then challenged and overtook Stenhouse to reassume the lead with six laps remaining.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Keselowski remained in the lead ahead of Hendrick Motorsports’ Elliott and Bowman. Entering Turn 1, Elliott, who had been drafted by teammate Bowman, made his move beneath Keselowski through the first two turns. He then slid up in front of Keselowski to assume the lead entering the backstretch.
With Keselowski being pressured by Bowman for the runner-up spot, Elliott managed to fend off the competition through the final set of turns. Elliott then cruised back to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by a tenth of a second over both Keselowski and Bowman.
With the victory, Chase Elliott notched his 20th career win in NASCAR’s premier series. It was also his second at Atlanta and his first since he won at Texas Motor Speedway in April 2024. The victory was the seventh of the year for the Chevrolet nameplate and the fifth for Hendrick Motorsports.
In addition, Elliott, who notched his first victory at his home track in Atlanta since July 2022, became the 12th competitor overall to notch a guaranteed berth to the 2025 Cup Series Playoffs by winning a regular-season event.
The victory was an emotional one for Elliott, who sported a special blue, white, red and orange scheme to his No. 9 NAPA/Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet entry. The scheme, which was labeled a “DESI9N TO DRIVE” scheme was part of an initiative by the Chase Elliott Foundation in collaboration with NAPA and Hendrick Motorsports to sport a paint scheme design by a pediatric cancer patient for Elliott’s suit and entry.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“Unbelievable,” Elliott said on the frontstretch on TNT. “How about that? Are you kidding me? I’ve never in my life. This is unbelievable. What a special car, and just a huge thanks to [sponsor] NAPA Auto Parts and everything they do for me and to benefit Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. [Cancer patient] Rhealynn Mills designed the fast NAPA Chevrolet tonight, so this was a lot of fun. This right here is something I’ll never forget. Thank you [fans] so much.”
“Well, I just think that, honestly, all the cards fell on the right places there those last couple laps,” Elliott added. “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.”
Brad Keselowski, who led 46 laps, settled in second place. It was his highest-finishing result of the 2025 season and his second top-five result of this year.
“[Elliott] just had [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.”
Alex Bowman, who led 32 laps, settled in third place while Tyler Reddick and Erik Jones finished in the top five. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Zane Smith, Ty Dillon, Chris Buescher, and Carson Hocevar completed the top 10 in the final running order.
*Following the first round of NASCAR’s newly formed In-Season Tournament that consisted of 32 competitors and eliminated half of the field, the following competitors will contend in the second In-Season Tournament next weekend at the Chicago Street Course: Chase Elliott, John Hunter Nemechek, Chris Buescher, Zane Smith, Ty Gibbs, AJ Allmendinger, Alex Bowman, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Preece, Noah Gragson, Brad Keselowski, Ty Dillon, Erik Jones, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Tyler Reddick and Carson Hocevar.
The Atlanta race featured 46 lead changes for 13 different leaders, and 10 cautions for 68 laps. In addition, 21 of 40 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 18th event of the 2025 Cup Series season, William Byron leads the regular-season standings by 37 points over teammate Chase Elliott, 42 over teammate Kyle Larson, 80 over both Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell, and 98 over Tyler Reddick.
Results:
1. Chase Elliott, 41 laps led 2. Brad Keselowski, 46 laps led 3. Alex Bowman, 32 laps led 4. Tyler Reddick, 18 laps led, Stage 2 winner 5. Erik Jones 6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap led 7. Zane Smith, five laps led 8. Ty Dillon 9. Chris Buescher, 15 laps led 10. Carson Hocevar 11. Connor Zilisch 12. AJ Allmendinger 13. Cody Ware 14. Ty Gibbs, 32 laps led 15. Ryan Preece, three laps led 16. BJ McLeod 17. Kyle Larson 18. Michael McDowell 19. Cole Custer 20. Austin Dillon 21. Kyle Busch 22. Bubba Wallace, two laps down 23. Justin Haley, three laps down, three laps led 24. Shane van Gisbergen, three laps down 25. Noah Gragson, eight laps down 26. John Hunter Nemechek, 19 laps down 27. Todd Gilliland, 23 laps down 28. Riley Herbst, 37 laps down, one lap led 29. David Starr – OUT, Accident 30. Christopher Bell – OUT, Steering 31. Denny Hamlin – OUT, Accident 32. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident 33. Ross Chastain – OUT, Accident 34. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Accident 35. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident 36. Joey Logano – OUT, Accident, 51 laps led 37. William Byron – OUT, Accident 38. Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident, 12 laps led, Stage 1 winner 39. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident 40. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the third annual Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course in Downtown Chicago for the second In-Season Tournament. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, July 6, and air at 2 p.m. ET on TNT.
Chase Elliott wins Cup Series race at EchoPark Speedway. Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
Denny Hamlin once again leads the Top-10 Power Rankings despite his disappointing finish at EchoPark Speedway.
Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.
1. Denny Hamlin:
Hamlin was knocked out of the Quaker State 400 when he was caught in a lap 69 accident at EchoPark Speedway. He finished 37th.
“My No. 11 Toyota sported sponsorship by Kings Hawaiian,” Hamlin said. “It’s too bad I wasn’t victorious in Atlanta, because it would have been really cool to call myself the ‘bread winner.'”
2. Chase Elliott:
Elliott surged late and made a last-lap pass on Brad Keselowski to win the Quaker State 400.
“Tyler Reddick edged me by 1/1000th of a second to win Stage 2,” Elliott said. “I can tell you the good people down at the Dawsonville Pool Room don’t give 1/1000th of a damn about a stage win, because they want to see a race win. And they got one.”
3. William Byron:
Like many drivers, Byron was wrecked in a massive pileup on lap 69 that involved several cars. He finished 37th.
“Atlanta Motor Speedway is now called ‘EchoPark Speedway,'” Byron said. “It’s sad to see a track sell its soul to the highest bidder, but I was happy to see my No. 24 Axalta Valvoline Liberty University Hendrick Chevrolet give everything it had.”
4. Alex Bowman:
Bowman finished third in the Quaker State 400.
“That was truly a race of attrition,” Bowman said. “And I think it’s safe to say a whole bunch of drivers were ‘attrition’ed.'”
5. Chase Briscoe:
Briscoe was collected in an early wreck and finished 34th.
“I was out of the race early,” Briscoe said, “so I didn’t have to conserve fuel in Atlanta like I did at Pocono. That being said, even on a totally empty tank, I still think I could have gone faster than David Starr.”
6. Chris Buescher:
Buescher survived a chaotic night in Atlanta to finish __th in the Quaker State 400.
“That’s right,” Buescher said. “I had Cinnamon Toast Crunch on my No. 17 Ford. To me, it seems surreal that cereal has been serially underrepresented in NASCAR.”
7. Ryan Blaney:
Blaney was a victim of a multi-car crash on lap 57 that ended his night in Atlanta. He finished 40th, in last place.
“You know there were a lot of crashes,” Blaney said, “when you have to specify which multi-car accident you were in.”
8. Ross Chastain:
Chastain finished __ in the Quaker State 400.
“The ‘Big One’ took out ‘this 1,'” Chastain said.
9. Christopher Bell:
Bell finished 30th in the Quaker State 400.
“Racing at EchoPark Speedway is always great viewing for spectators,” Bell said. “And that includes superstars like me who became spectators.”
10. Joey Logano:
Logano started on the pole but crashed out early when he was collected in a big crash on lap 69. He finished 36th.
“This was the first race of the in-season challenge,” Logano said. “And the only thing busted more than the cars are the in-season brackets.”
