Chase Elliott wins home race in Atlanta after late block and run

Chase Elliott‘s hometown of Dawsonville, Georgia, is located about eighty-five miles from Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, but victory had eluded him for much of his NASCAR career. In Sunday’s Cup Series race, he needed to throw a block on the final lap to stave off an incoming Corey LaJoie, but he got to add that home win to his résumé.

While Eliott is the four-time-defending Most Popular Driver, LaJoie was perhaps the sentimental pick to win as the underdog seeking his first career national series win. However, the road to victory—especially on a track designed with superspeedway racing in mind—is paved with wrecked cars and aggressive moves. On the final lap, while Elliott was riding in first, LaJoie received a strong push from Erik Jones to catch the leader who then moved up and hit LaJoie’s front-left bumper. The contact was enough to send LaJoie into the turn one wall, where he spun down and hit Ryan Blaney before ricocheting back up and starting a pile-up that ended the race under caution.

“I hate to throw a mega block like that,” said Elliott. “I had kind of shied away from that big block throughout the day. Had always kind of given in at different points to a guy when they had that big of a run.

“But running the last lap, if you let him go, one of two things can happen. You choose the lane you want to lose in and you hope that you have enough time to go and get him back, or you throw a big block and hope you can stay in front of him. The problem is it could go one of two ways for you. Obviously, you can crash throwing the big block, or you can try to be patient and wait, and then the crash happens behind you and you’ve given up the lead and the caution comes out and now the race is over. I don’t know how you know exactly what choice to make in that situation. A guy is coming with a massive run, am I taking the chance of crashing when I threw it up in front of him? Absolutely, but I didn’t think I was going to get another shot at him if he let him grab the lead right there in that situation.

“I was able to defend the bottom side block and I felt more comfortable defending more aggressively up to the top. I thought that was a situation that I could win on. Fortunately, it worked out, but those situations are impossible. They might go right for you some and they might not, and I don’t really know how you know what’s going to happen next to be able to make that choice.”

Despite the block, LaJoie bore no ill-will towards Elliott and congratulated him in Victory Lane. He officially finished twenty-first.

“It was nice to have that thing out in the wind for once, but I made my move and it didn’t work out, he made a good block and the siren is ringing in Dawsonville, unfortunately,” he told NBC Sports.

“I was going to school. That was the first time I’ve been leading a restart at one of these superspeedway-style race tracks and how much you have to drag back, time your runs, cover the lanes, it’s all new to me. When I get myself in that position again, I’ll be a little more prepared and hopefully we can do a little better job and be the one that control the blocks as opposed to the one that’s trying to make that late-race move because that guy usually is in the catbird seat.”

Although LaJoie and Elliott, whose teams are technical allies, ended the race on good terms, the same could not be said for Ross Chastain with much of the field. Chastain, who finished second and won the most recent superspeedway race (Talladega in April), continued to make enemies left and right for his overly aggressive racing tactics. Following a lap 91 multi-car wreck triggered by Chastain turning Martin Truex Jr., Aric Almirola threatened over the radio to confront him at a Food Lion supermarket while Austin Dillon commented drivers should “take a different strategy” to avoid those like Chastain “wrecking half the field.”

With fifteen laps remaining, he spun Denny Hamlin, re-stoking a feud that brewed at Gateway last month. While Chastain took responsibility for the contact, he defended it as him overestimating his wounded car’s grip, and a miffed Hamlin noted “everyone has a different tolerance level but I’ve reached my peak.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	1	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	Running
2	2	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	260	Running
3	5	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	260	Running
4	25	43	Erik Jones	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	Running
5	6	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	260	Running
6	7	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	260	Running
7	24	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	260	Running
8	22	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	260	Running
9	18	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	260	Running
10	27	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	260	Running
11	9	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe GIbbs Racing	Toyota	260	Running
12	10	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	260	Running
13	3	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	Running
14	32	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	260	Running
15	12	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	260	Running
16	14	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	260	Running
17	28	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	260	Running
18	31	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	260	Running
19	15	20	Christopher Bell	Joe GIbbs Racing	Toyota	260	Running
20	19	18	Kyle Busch	Joe GIbbs Racing	Toyota	260	Running
21	30	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	Running
22	21	45	Kurt Busch	23XI Racing	Toyota	259	Accident
23	34	51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	259	Running
24	36	77	Landon Cassill*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	259	Running
25	16	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe GIbbs Racing	Toyota	259	Running
26	17	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	252	DVP
27	33	15	Garrett Smithley*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	252	Running
28	23	42	Ty Dillon	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	174	DVP
29	4	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	170	Accident
30	13	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	170	Accident
31	20	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racicng	Chevrolet	162	Engine
32	8	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	160	DVP
33	11	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	107	Accident
34	29	16	Noah Gragson*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	91	Suspension
35	26	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	90	Accident
36	35	78	B.J. McLeod*	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	77	Accident

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points