Loop Data Box Score : Atlanta Motor Speedway

• Friday, June 27th, 2025
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

$1 Million Bracket Begins: In-Season Challenge Ignites Under the Lights at EchoPark

The final weekend of June will be one of “firsts” when it comes to NASCAR racing.

For the first time this season, the NASCAR Cup Series will race at a venue for the second time, though in the interim, Atlanta Motor Speedway has acquired new entitlement as EchoPark Speedway.

After a stellar five-race run on Amazon Prime Video, the Cup Series shifts to TNT Sports, though Dale Earnhardt Jr., Steve Letarte and Adam Alexander will remain in the broadcast booth and bring continuity to TNT’s five races.

The move to TNT Sports coincides with the debut of the In-Season Challenge for the Cup Series, pitting 32 drivers in head-to-head matchups, starting with Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway.

The In-Season Challenge continues throughout the TNT portion of the schedule, reducing the field by half each week until two drivers remain to compete for the $1-million winner’s prize in the Champions Round on July 27 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Racing conditions on Saturday promise to be quite different from the 50-degree temperature that greeted drivers on Feb. 23, when race winner Christopher Bell nosed ahead of Carson Hocevar before caution froze the field on the final lap.

Though the Quaker State 400 will take place under the lights, temperatures are expected to remain in the 80s until nightfall, resulting in a hot, slick track that will challenge drivers to maintain order in a close-quarters draft—style of racing that’s a by-product of the superspeedway competition package in use at EchoPark Speedway since its repaving and reconfiguration in 2022.

With nine races left in the Cup Series’ regular season, Atlanta presents the opportunity for drivers to secure a spot in the postseason with a victory. Though conventional wisdom says the pool of potential winners expands in a superspeedway setting, certain drivers tend to appear consistently at the front of the field. One of those is Joey Logano, who won last year’s second race, which was held in September.

Another is two-time Daytona 500 champion William Byron, who won at EchoPark in both 2022 and 2023.

Byron, who hasn’t won since claiming his second straight Daytona 500 in February, could use some good fortune this week. He wrecked arguably the fastest car in the field at Pocono during qualifying and finished 27th in the race after repairs to the car.

“We had a rough weekend in Pocono, but I’m proud of how the team came together to have our car ready for Sunday,” Byron said. “The strategy just didn’t work out. We’ve put that behind us though, and we’ll be ready for this weekend in Atlanta.

“We’ve had success there in the past, but there is still an unknown element after the reconfiguration. The goal remains the same though, go for the win, and if that’s not the case, maximize our points day. We just have to be there at the end.”

Byron faces Ryan Preece, another adept speedway racer, in the opening round of the In-Season Challenge. Denny Hamlin, who has finished first and second in his last two starts, is the top seed in the bracket. He’s paired against 32nd seed Ty Dillon in the first round.

• EchoPark Speedway
• Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart
• Busch Pole Award Pole Winner: Joey Logano
• Age: 35
• Team : No 22 - Autotrader Ford
• Owner: Roger Penske
• Crew Chief: Paul Wolfe
• Joey Logano won the Pole Award for the Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart with a lap of 30979 seconds, 178960 mph
• This is his 32nd pole in 597 NASCAR Cup Series races
• This is his first pole and 10th top-10 start in 2025
• This is his third pole in 24 races at EchoPark Speedway
• Josh Berry (second) posted his eighth top-10 start of 2025 and his third in five races at EchoPark Speedway
• Ryan Blaney (third) posted his 10th top-10 start at Atlanta Motor Speedway It is his seventh in 18 races this season
• Riley Herbst (20th) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Sunday, June 29th, 2025
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

Elliott Shakes Off Slump, Advances in $1M In-Season Challenge Thriller

Timing his pass on the last lap to perfection, Georgia native Chase Elliott charged past Brad Keselowski and held off the driver of the No. 6 Ford to win Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Echo Park Speedway.

The popular victory in the first event of the NASCAR Cup Series’ In-Season Challenge broke a 44-race drought for Elliott dating to last year’s win at Texas Motor Speedway. The win was the second at EchoPark for the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and the 20th of his career.

Elliott crossed the finish line 0.168 seconds ahead of Keselowski and 0.170 seconds in front of teammate and third-place finisher Alex Bowman.

The 29-year-old from Dawsonville, Ga., advanced to the second round of the five-race in-season tournament, eliminating first-round opponent Austin Dillon, who finished 20th.

In a race that featured 46 lead changes among 13 drivers, Elliott got a welcome push from Bowman on the final two laps, stranding Keselowski with no help for a final charge.

“Unbelievable… unbelievable. How about that? Are you kidding me?” Elliott said with an uncharacteristic display of emotion. “I’ve never in my life… This is unbelievable. Thank you guys so much.

“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.”

In the closing laps, Elliott was quick to seize the opportunity that came his way.

“Well, I just think that, honestly, all the cards fell on the right places there those last couple laps,” he acknowledged. “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.”

Keselowski led 46 laps, including circuits 255-259 of 260, and advanced past 21st-place finisher Kyle Busch in the In-Season Challenge, but he had no defense for Elliott’s final push.

“The 9 [Elliott] just had the 48 [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.”

Tyler Reddick came home fourth, followed by Erik Jones. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Zane Smith, Ty Dillon, Chris Buescher and Carson Hocevar completed the top 10.

The 18th event of the Cup Series regular season got off to a slow start that belied the intense action that would come later in the proceedings. A delay for a light rain stopped the race for 14minutes, 34 seconds after 36 laps, with Joey Logano out front for the entire stint after starting from the pole.

After the resumption to green-flag racing on Lap 49, the first of two major wrecks was just eight circuits away. On Lap 57, Christopher Bell turned sideways near the apex of Turns 3 and 4, igniting a seven-car wreck that sent the cars of Bell and Ryan Blaney to the garage for attempted repairs.

“I saw a couple guys spinning and slowing,” Blaney said. “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.”

That was just the appetizer. One the backstretch after a restart on Lap 69, Buescher lifted to avoid running into then-leader Chase Elliott and the field accordioned behind him, sending cars spinning out of control and into each other.

In a wreck that inflicted varying degrees of damage on 22 of the 40 cars, the vehicles of Ross Chastain, William Byron, Daniel Suarez, Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Josh Berry and Corey LaJoie all found their way to the garage—several on wrecker—a result of the 16-car pileup.

Byron exited in 36th place.

“There wasn’t really a whole lot I could see,” said the two-time Daytona 500 winner. “I was kind of catching the No. 22 [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.”

Needless to say, the two major incidents had enormous implications for the In-Season Challenge. Hamlin, the top seed, fell victim to 32nd seed Ty Dillon in the biggest upset of the opening round.

“For all you Denny fans out there, I just beat your favorite driver,” Dillon quipped afterwards, borrowing from one of Hamin’s signature phrases.

Second-seeded Briscoe was ousted by close friend Noah Gragson, who survived the major incidents and finished 25th. Byron bowed out to Ryan Preece, who finished 15th.

Joining Elliott, Keselowski, Ty Dillon, Preece and Gragson in advancing to the second round of the Challenge were Bowman, Bubba Wallace, John Hunter Nemechek, Jones, Hocevar, Reddick (eliminating Kyle Larson), AJ Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs and Smith.

The race featured 10 cautions for 68 laps. Logano led twice for a race-high 51 laps before exiting after the Lap 69 crash. Austin Cindric won the first stage. Reddick edged Elliott for the Stage 2 win by 0.001 seconds.

• Drivers Entered: 40
• Laps Scheduled: 260
• Margin of Victory: 0.168 Seconds
• Time of Race: 3 Hours 34 Minutes 54 Seconds
• Average Speed: 111.792
• Cautions: 10 for 68 laps
• Lead Changes: 46
• Green Flag Passes: 5,368 (28.0 passes per green flag lap)

• EchoPark Speedway
• Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart
• Race Winner: Chase Elliott
• Age: 29
• Team : No 9 - NAPA/Children's Chevrolet
• Owner: Rick Hendrick
• Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson
• Chase Elliott won the Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart, his 20th victory in 340 Cup Series races
• This is his first victory and 10th top-10 finish in 2025
• This is his second victory and ninth top-10 finish in 14 races at Atlanta Motor Speedway
• Brad Keselowski (second) posted his 12th top-10 finish in 22 races at Atlanta Motor Speedway It is his fourth top-10 finish in 2025
• Alex Bowman (third) posted his fifth top-10 finish in 15 races at Atlanta Motor Speedway
• Shane Van Gisbergen (24th) was the highest finishing rookie
• William Byron leads the point standings by 37 points over Chase Elliott