Chase Elliott didn’t just win in Atlanta; he owned the moment. With the last-lap slingshot move under Brad Keselowski and a perfect push from teammate Alex Bowman, Elliot finally broke his 44-winless streak at his home track. The crowd at Atlanta Motor Speedway roared, confetti flew, and for once in what felt like forever, Mr. Popular was back in Victory Lane and on top of the NASCAR world.
But while fans were throwing hats and Hendrick was throwing high-fives, one veteran broadcaster decided to sneak in a jab with a grin. In a very sneaky way of speaking, the ex-driver knew what he was doing. The kicker? He meant it … But also didn’t.
Kyle Petty saluted Chase Elliott’s win with a smirk
For Kyle Petty, Chase Elliott’s Atlanta win wasn’t so much a redemption arc as it was a stroke of fortune wrapped in chaos. On his Kiss My Asphalt podcast, the NASCAR veteran turned broadcaster doubled down on his long-standing critique of the fan favorite. Petty, referencing Elliott’s frustrating dry spell, said, “ Get up off his rear end and get back to Victory Lane. And he found his way to Victory Lane this week. Congratulations, Chase. Congratulations. This is not personal.”
Petty sarcasm wasn’t exactly subtle. He’s been on Chase Elliott’s case for months, pointing out that prior to Atlanta, the 2020 champion had only one win in nearly 3 years, a stat that’s hard to ignore for a driver with the sport’s most devoted following. But in Atlanta, Elliott finally delivered. Surviving a 10-caution demolition derby that turned into a survival test more than a speed contest, he made his move on lap 259 of 260, diving under Brad to seal the win by 0.168 seconds, his first since Texas last year.
TALLADEGA, AL – OCTOBER 05: Chase Elliott 9 Hendrick Motorsports Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet during qualifications for the NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Cup Series YellaWood 500 race on October 5, 2024 at the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama. Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire AUTO: OCT 05 NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 EDITORIAL USE ONLY Icon953241005456
Kyle Petty, never one to mince words, kept things spicy. He turned up the heat when he said, “He (Elliott) only raced half the field. Tyler Reddick said, ‘We only had to race 10 or 12 cars because everybody else was in a wreck.’ This was a race for non-winners. This was a race for people who hadn’t won a race all year long. We heard it on the radio; we heard it on TV. Well, after the last 15, 20, 30 cars that are left, nobody has won a race unless it was SPG or Kyle Larson, and they had been in the rack. So they weren’t going to be a factor. They were just out on the racetrack.” Ouch, that one might sting.
Chaos began on lap 57 when a seven-car pile-up in turns 3-4 took out contenders like Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney. But things escalated further on lap 69, when an accordion-style crash on the backstretch involved nearly 23 cars. Big names like Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Joey Logano, and Kyle Larson were caught in the mess, either heavily damaged, forced to, or knocked out entirely. The carnage thinned the field dramatically and changed the playoff picture in a flash.
Despite the jabs, Petty gave Elliott credit, well, sort of. “Now let me clarify this: a W is a W. When I won my very first race, I was running fifth, and the top four guys crashed. I didn’t deserve the race, but I got the W. It’s on my record. Chase Elliott got the W, and that’s all that matters. And it’s good for the sport. The fans love it, NASCAR loves it, TV loves it. Everybody loves it. Everything is right with the world today, and that’s all that really matters in our sport—that everything is right.”
Amid all the mayhem, Chase Elliott stayed out of trouble, led 41 laps, and survived the madness. The race featured a wild 46 lead changes among 13 drivers and 10 questions, but when the dust settled, Elliott’s last-lap overtake and resilience through the wreckage secured him his first win of the season and lit up his home track in a dramatic fashion.
And funnily enough, Kyle Petty knows a thing or two about being in the right place at the right time. His first-ever Cup Series win came back in 1986 at Richmond, not Atlanta, but the story fits. Like he pointed out, Petty had been running behind when chaos erupted up front, taking out big names like Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt. Just like that, he inherited the lead and the win. So when he says chase Atlanta’s win came in a race for non-winners, there’s a grin behind it and probably a little déjà vu, too.
Kyle Petty explains his love for Atlanta
Kyle Petty surprised all the folks when he called EchoPark, formerly called Atlanta Motor Speedway, “The best track on the NASCAR calendar.” Coming from NASCAR royalty, his legacy is cemented at Daytona and Talladega, and that’s no small endorsement. But Kyle Petty does not want to stick to nostalgia; he’s here for the show, and Atlanta delivers.
For years, Atlanta was lumped in with other mile-and-a-half tracks like Texas and Kansas—solid, but not spectacular. Now? Petty says it’s in a league of its own. He said, “It is the one and only Atlanta Motor Speedway. We don’t see racing like this anywhere else…” The Quaker State 400 was proof enough. The total breakfast that still ended in a last-lap thriller.
Petty emphasizes that it’s not about big fields or perfect cars; it’s all about the drama. “You don’t have to have 36 to 40 cars to have a great NASCAR race. We saw it in the last five, six, seven laps of the race, some of the best racing that we’ve seen since the first Atlanta race [earlier this year, which was won by Christopher Bell]! That’s what it’s all about, this racetrack puts on a show for the fans, so I think it’s great racing.”
He’d happily run Atlanta every week there. And hopefully Chase Elliott keeps on racking up wins so that we get to hear what Kyle Petty has to say about him.
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