Hampton, Ga. – A night when the opportunity opened for so many drivers outside a place of playoffs, Hope passed out in the vagueness of the car of Chase Elliott.
And it is less a chance to make the playoffs for Brad Keselowski, Erik Jones, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Zane Smith.
The star of Hendrick Motorsports won his second victory on his hometown.
All entered the Saturday evening race at Echopark Speedway outside a place of playoffs. Jones was closest to the Cup line and it was more than one point race. Although there is a chance that these pilots can make their way through the playoffs with eight regular season races, the reality is that they have to win.
Saturday evening was to be this chance.
Until it is not.
Smith led eight laps.
Stenhouse passed it and led with seven laps to do.
Keselowski was made by him and led the next five laps.
Chase Elliott passed it for the victory in the last lap.
“Each defeat is zero,” said Keselowski after finishing second.
He became the 12th winner of the 2025 season.
Keselowski is so far in the points he needs to win to make the playoffs. But he was not very lucky in this last round.
The teammate of Elliott, Alex Bowman – who entered the night’s cutting line at night – was in third place and pushed Elliott in the front when the terrain took the white flag.
“If he and I were doing something else that we push each other in this situation, we put the race to Brad,” said Elliott.
Several competitors went out early after a crashfest at Echopark Speedway in Atlanta.
This momentum helped Elliott plunge inside Keselowski’s car and exceed it in the turn 1. Bowman challenged Keselowski during second place while Elliott retired for popular victory on his home track.
“There are races where you can do different things and there are races where you can’t,” Keselowski said.
There was not much that he could do against the two teammates of Hendrick Motorsports.
A key moment in the race occurred when his Keselowksi teammate Chris Buescher, who had run second behind his boss, lost second to Smith at the 237 at the 260 -laps race. Buescher then came across fourth two laps later. He quickly fell from the top five and could not provide Keselowski no help with the rest of the race.
Without a teammate, Keselowski was exposed to the big movements that cars could make on the speedway of 1.54 mile.
Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe were eliminated in a crashfest.
When Smith took the lead, he felt comfortable with the situation just a few kilometers from a first potential cup victory.
“I felt like I was a good idea of how it was going to be, controlling the guy in second position, how much he was going to get a race and trying to stagnate him as possible and to take the help,” said Smith after finishing seventh. “I just leave two guys.”
Stenhouse took a big step to go to three wide, plunging low to take the lead.
“I just didn’t feel like I was having enough speed to stay there,” said Stenhouse after placing sixth. “It was going to take it massive blocks to do it.
With the big races, this would have led to a big accident, similar to the accident of 22 cars which highlighted caution at the 70 of the Tour which eliminated the leader of points William Byron, the pole-sitter Joey Logano, the winner of Pocono Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin.
Keselowski took control and with two laps to do, he was in good condition. He had Tyler Reddick behind him, followed by Elliott, Stenhouse, Jones, who would finish the fifth and Bowman. It was a Toyota, two Chevrolets, a Toyota and another Chevrolet behind the Keselowski Ford.
If he had stayed at the book, Keselowski could have retained his enemies, but Bowman went from sixth to the third and Elliott went from the third to the second compared to the last lap, setting up the Elliott movement.
“Honestly,” said Elliott, “all the cards fell in the right places there.”
And left Keselowski, Jones, Stenhouse and Smith in search of this victory which puts them in the playoffs.
