Chase Elliott rolled off the grid at Richmond in 5th, looking every bit like he had the car to hang with the frontrunners. But almost as soon as the green flag dropped, things started sliding in the wrong direction. By the end of Stage 1, he was buried outside the top 10, and when pit road penalties piled on, the night quickly became an uphill climb.
Still, Elliott and the No. 9 team kept grinding, working their way back into contention on fresher tires and showing flashes of what could have been. Yet, as the laps wound down, it wasn’t the slow start or the penalties that ended up defining his night. Rather, it was a split-second moment in the chaos of a wreck that changed everything.
Chase Elliott’s Richmond race ends in frustration
Chase Elliott rolled into Richmond with big ambitions. Sitting just behind William Byron in the NASCAR Cup Series standings, the No. 9 driver saw the short track as a prime opportunity to close the gap. Or, maybe even overtake Bowman and put one hand on the regular-season championship. After qualifying fifth, everything pointed toward a strong night for the Hendrick Motorsports star. But as the laps ticked away, Elliott’s race slowly unraveled before it came to a brutal end.
Stage 1 was the first warning sign, as Elliott slipped outside the top 10 and struggled with track position. Still, Elliott and his crew kept their heads down, mounting a steady comeback on fresher tires and putting themselves in a position to climb back toward the front. “We finally got on some better tires and we were making our way through there well, so I was excited to see where that was going to go,” Elliott said post-race.
Instead, everything came apart on Lap 198 in a big wreck of the night. It all started when Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain made contact off Turn 2. As a result of the contact with Briscoe, Brad Keselowski got collected. Shortly, chaos ensued as Chase Briscoe spun while trying to pass Kyle Larson low. The chain reaction swept up Denny Hamlin, Justin Haley, and Busch.
And as Elliott tried to sneak past the wreck on the bottom, Busch clipped him. This contact sent the No. 9 Chevy hard into the outside wall. “I thought we were done wrecking,” Elliott explained. “I thought we were done wrecking. Was just trying to squeak by, and I guess Kyle (Busch) just didn’t know I was to his left, and we were, so I hate that.”
The crash earned Elliott his first DNF of the season. But, most importantly, it cost him crucial points in the championship fight. William Byron has won the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Championship. For Elliott, what looked like a golden chance to grab momentum instead turned into the kind of night that brought a heartbreaking ending to his 2025 regular season.
Byron clinches regular-season title
William Byron entered Richmond just needing a modest buffer to clinch the regular-season crown. And with a 12th-place finish in the Cook Out 400, he did just that. He crossed the finish line by safely settling in the middle of the pack, comfortably securing the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Championship, his first. Moreover, he locked in an additional 15 playoff points to complement the 17 he’d previously earned during the season.
Byron had needed to finish the race at least 62 points ahead of the second-place driver to clinch the title. Thanks to Chase Elliott’s race-ending crash on Lap 198 (not to mention a strong, steady drive from Byron), he ended up 68 points clear with one race remaining before the postseason. The last time a regular-season championship was clinched with a race to go was in 2020. Remember when Kevin Harvick sealed the deal right after the penultimate race at Dover?
“That’s the best 12th-place finish we’ve ever had,” Byron said with a grin, acknowledging how crucial consistency and teamwork were to the outcome. “We came in here and just did a solid job… this is definitely our toughest track. We had a solid plan and executed it.”
Byron’s path to the regular-season title wasn’t without turbulence. After opening the year with a standout win in the Daytona 500 and another victory at Iowa, he hit a midseason rough patch. Shockingly, that included five finishes of 27th or worse! Still, he rebounded with consistent performance in August. And the plucky run at Richmond sealed the deal just one week early.
Meanwhile, Elliott’s crash looms large. Now, Byron heads into the regular-season finale at Daytona with both a championship and a sizable head start. He is poised and primed for a playoff run that could very well lead to championship glory.
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