Chase Elliott passed Brad Keselowski in Turn 1 on the final lap and won a wild, wreck-filled NASCAR Cup Series’ Quaker State 400 on Saturday night at EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Ga.
After moving to second place with two to go, the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver — winless through 17 races — slipped below Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford and beat it to the checkers for his 20th career win and just his second in three seasons.
The seven-time Most Popular Driver Award winner topped Keselowski by 0.168 seconds and earned a spot in NASCAR’s 10-race postseason.
Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick and Erik Jones completed the top-five finishers.
In the track’s first race under its new name, Team Penske racer Joey Logano took the green flag and led seven more Fords in the season’s 18th race.
Logano’s No. 22 led every circuit as Fords owned the top six positions through 25 laps, but the No. 77 Chevrolet of Carson Hocevar was the biggest mover, climbing 23 spots to get to fourth on Lap 27.
The first caution on Lap 35 for rain resulted in a nearly 15-minute red flag. Logano led the first 49 laps, but the first melee occurred on Lap 57 as Christopher Bell lost control of his No. 20 Toyota to trigger a wreck with Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon.
That ended the 60-lap Stage 1 under caution with Austin Cindric as the winner. Fellow Fords driven by Keselowski and Logano trailed him.
The third caution on Lap 70 nearing Turn 3, from about eighth on back, created an even bigger mess.
Denny Hamlin, Logano, Ross Chastain, Cindric, Hocevar, William Byron and last week’s winner Chase Briscoe all suffered major damage in the 23-car accident that brought out a second red flag.
Stage 2, a 160-lap segment, produced the 1.54-mile tri-oval’s best racing — action that looked like recent finishes at the superspeedway as a hornet’s nest of drivers 10-deep fought for the bonus points.
At the end, a photo-finish showed Reddick clipping Elliott for the maximum amount, while Chris Buescher, Bowman and Jones rounded out the top five.
With 34 laps left, seventh-place Justin Haley was tapped by Ty Dillon’s No. 10 in a single-car incident for the 10th caution to set up the finish.
–Field Level Media
