ATLANTA — In a race striking parallels more to Daytona and Talladega rather than the Texas or Charlotte tracks with similar dimensions, Atlanta proved for the second time this season that it deserves to be a perennial part of the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
Almost the entire entry list stayed bunched together throughout the race's 260 laps, only losing contenders as crashes tallied on and eliminated competitors.
While many drivers led laps and looked like contenders for the win, none of them were as consistent throughout the day as Chase Elliott.
Elliott started on the pole, led 96 laps, won both stages, and capped off his third win of the year after an eventful race.
The final restart came with four laps to go with Corey LaJoie leading and looking for his first career win. However, Elliott took over LaJoie with two laps left and held on to secure his first victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
LaJoie made a move to pass Elliott on the final lap but the leader blocked him. The halted momentum caused LaJoie to hit the wall, collecting Kurt Busch and Cole Custer in the process.
The race ended under caution as a result, ending a possible last-lap battle between Elliott and Ross Chastain, whose car was taped up and visibly damaged after multiple on-track incidents with other cars.
A total of 13 cautions occurred on the day as frontrunners were knocked out one by one.
The first major incident happened on Lap 91 when Martin Truex Jr. got loose off the front bumper of Ross Chastain and spun around, causing an eight-car pileup and taking out multiple Top 10 contenders.
On Lap 170, Garrett Smithley was running in the Top 10 when he got loose and spun around off the bumper of Ty Dillon. The ensuing crash collected eight more cars.
Chastain again was involved in an incident while behind Denny Hamlin on Lap 246. The Trackhouse Racing driver bumped Hamlin, causing him to spin around. Brad Keselowski was also involved.
With under 10 to go, Truex held the lead and did his best to stop Corey LaJoie but to no avail. LaJoie got a big push from Chastain that sent him to the front as he looked to secure that first career victory.
However, another caution caused by a spinning Joey Logano created the race's final sequence where Elliott was able to nudge his way from Row 2 to the front of the pack.
"To win at your home track is a big deal to any driver," said Elliott after his victory. "I knew [LaJoie] was gonna have a big run. I didn't want to give him the bottom and I tried to give him it one good aggressive block."
Although he was about two laps from taking his first win in NASCAR's premier series, LaJoie was happy to have ran as well as he did at Atlanta despite finishing 21st after the last lap wreck.
"[It's as] close as I've ever been [to winning]. I'm proud of my guys," said LaJoie. "I made my move and it didn't work out. That was the first time I've been leading at a restart at one of these superspeedways. Hopefully, we can have the 7 car up front more often."
One name on many drivers' minds after the race was Ross Chastain.
"We were just a casualty of Ross Chastain once again," said Austin Dillon, who was taken out of the race after the wreck on Lap 91. "When you have guys like him out there wrecking half the field you might as well take a different strategy."
"It's just another unfortunate circumstance with him," said Hamlin. "I think everyone has different tolerance levels but you guys know I've reached my peak."
Elliott's win places him alone at the top of the playoff standings with three wins and five stage wins giving him a slight cushion over Chastain and William Byron, who are tied for 2nd with two race wins and three stage wins.
At the bottom of the playoff grid is Christopher Bell, who sits 18 points ahead of Kevin Harvick for the 16th and final spot in the standings with seven races remaining in the regular season.
NASCAR's next event is the Ambetter 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 17.