Georgia-Native, Chase Elliott, Dominates and Wins at Home Track
Since the repave of Atlanta Motor Speedway earlier this year, the track has run more like a superspeedway than a mile-and-a-half intermediate track. The superspeedway-style racing comes with riskier moves, bigger accidents, and more intense battles to the finish. All of which were seen during Sunday’s Quaker State 400, creating an exciting race from green to checkered.
LAP 1: Qualifying was cancelled due to rain, meaning the grid was set based on point standings, placing the #9 of Chase Elliott in pole position and the #1 of Ross Chastain beside him on the front row. When the green flag waved, Chastain was able to pass Elliott but quickly complained on the radio that his Chevrolet was only able to handle when in the lead, not in traffic or dirty air.
CAUTION – LAP 26: The yellow flag was waved for the competition caution because the single practice session of the weekend was also cancelled due to rain. Chase Elliott and the #9 team decided to stay out of the pits to regain track position while most of the field pitted.
STAGE 1 END – LAP 60: Following an intense back-and-forth battle between Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney, Elliott held on to win the stage and collect the playoff point. Elliott’s teammate, Alex Bowman, scored second, while Ross Chastain, Blaney, and William Byron rounded out the top 5 and collected points as well. During pitstops under caution, Elliott lost the lead to the #19 of Martin Truex Jr, who led following the restart.
CAUTION – LAP 77: While racing at the back of the pack, the #17 of Chris Buescher made contact with the #78 of BJ McLeod and the #42 of Ty Dillon, resulting in a 3-car spin. McLeod was out of the race while the others were able to continue racing.
CAUTION – LAP 90: A major wreck began when Ross Chastain pushed Martin Truex Jr offside and turned the #19 sideways in Turn 2. Because the wreck started at the front of the field, several cars were collected including Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon, and others. Dillon made heavy contact with the SAFER barrier, which resulted in severe damage and forced him to retire from the race.
CAUTION – LAP 106: The #17 of Chris Buescher had the right-front tire blow in Turn 4, which caused him to hit the wall and bring out the caution.
CAUTION – LAP 136: Chase Briscoe in the #14 Ford Mustang brought out the 6th caution of the day when he spun by himself in Turn 2.
CAUTION / STAGE 2 END – LAP 160: Coming to one-to-go at the end of the stage, Alex Bowman spun from the 5th position when both of his rear tires went flat. This caution served as the end of the stage, letting Chase Elliott claim another segment victory. Behind Elliott – Tyler Reddick, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, and Kurt Busch completed the Top 5.
CAUTION – LAP 169: Another multi-car wreck occurred when the #15 of Garrett Smithley got loose and spun in Turn 3. Without anywhere to go, other cars started piling up like dominos including Ty Dillon, Tyler Reddick, William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson, and others.
CAUTION – LAP 188: The #52 of Cody Ware lost control and spun backwards in Turn 2 and hit the wall. Kyle Busch in the #18 also spun while trying to avoid Ware.
CAUTION – LAP 235: Christopher Bell in the #20 Toyota Camry went for a wild ride when he got loose coming out of Turn 4 and slid sideways through the infield grass. Remarkably, the car didn’t sustain any damage and was able to continue racing in the Top 15 after pitting for new tires.
CAUTION – LAP 245: With 15 laps to go, the caution came out for the #11 of Denny Hamlin and the #1 of Ross Chastain, two drivers that have had several run-ins with each other over the last few races. This time, Chastain put the right-front of his bumper to the left-rear quarter-panel of Hamlin, spinning the #11 sideways, and continued to drive through the #11. The wreck also collected Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney, who escaped with minimal damage.
When asked about the incident with Chastain after the race, Hamlin said: “Everyone has a different tolerance level but I’ve reached my peak.”
CAUTION – LAP 252: While racing on the backstretch, Christopher Bell tried to shoot the middle between Hamlin and Joey Logano. Unfortunately, there was not enough space and Bell ended up “hooking” his teammate, Hamlin, into the side of Logano’s #22 Ford Mustang.
CAUTION / CHECKERED FLAG – LAP 260: On the final lap, Corey Lajoie tried to make a pass on the outside of Chase Elliott, who was still in P1. Elliott slid up the track to block the run, which caused Lajoie to move higher and ended up in the wall, collecting Kurt Busch and Cole Custer.
Georgia-native, Chase Elliott, crossed the finish line under caution to become the first driver of the season to win 3 races.
RESULTS:
- Chase Elliott
- Ross Chastain
- Austin Cindric
- Erik Jones
- Ryan Blaney
- Daniel Suarez
- Justin Haley
- Aric Almirola
- Cole Custer
- Harrison Burton
- Martin Truex Jr
- Kevin Harvick
- Kyle Larson
- Bubba Wallace
- Michael McDowell
- Chase Briscoe
- Todd Gilliland
- Brad Keselowski
- Christopher Bell
- Kyle Busch
- Corey Lajoie
- Kurt Busch
- Cody Ware
- Landon Cassill
- Denny Hamlin
- Joey Logano
- Garrett Smithley
- Ty Dillon
- Tyler Reddick
- William Byron
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr
- Alex Bowman
- Chris Buescher
- Noah Gragson
- Austin Dillon
- BJ McLeod
