Editor’s Note: Full results, race notes, and updated rider standings are at the bottom of this file. And don’t forget to watch part two — the UGLY part of Sunday’s race.
If Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race had been made into a movie, it would have been an updated version of a reel classic, with a title that would be a no-brainer: “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”
Instead of Clint Eastwood in the lead role, the 2022 version would star Chase Elliott (the Good), Corey LaJoie (the Bad), and the Ugly (Ross Chastain).
We’re going to give you two columns about Sunday’s race here on AutoRacingDigest.com† First will be about the good and the bad. The second column is about the ugly – and it certainly was and will lead to even more ugliness as the season progresses.
Enjoying:
First, it was good.
Sunday’s Quaker State 400 was a finish as good as it gets, as Elliott came out with the win and stopped runner-up Chastain, who was robbed of one last-second bid for the lead when a caution in the last round the field and gave Elliott the win.
There’s more good news for Chase: He joined his father, NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, as the second father-son combination to win at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the other being Dale Earnhardt and son Dale Jr.
And Elliott became the first Cup driver this season to take a third win, while four others took two wins each and eight drivers who have won just once so far. Sunday’s race was the 19e of the season, meaning there are only seven races left to reach the end of the “regular season” of 26 races — in other words, the lead-up to the 10-race, 16-driver playoffs.
It wasn’t a perfect race for Elliott, but it was damn close. Not only did he win the race, he captured each of the first two stages.
“This one’s for sure, man,” Elliott replied when asked by NBC/USA Network where his first-ever Cup win was at his home circuit — he grew up about 90 miles north of Atlanta Motor Speedway in tiny Dawsonville, Georgia — ranked among the other 15 races he won in his cup career.
“Winning on your home track is a really big deal for any racing driver,” said the younger Elliott. “I’ve seen a lot of guys do it over the years (win at their home circuit), like Jimmie (Johnson) in California. We haven’t really had a good run here, so I felt like today was a great opportunity for us.
“Obviously this is my home for me, home to a lot of great fans who made a lot of noise today, home for NAPA, down the road in Atlanta. I couldn’t be more proud of our team
“What a car. Not sure if we’ve ever had such a good speedway car. If we had, I probably would have destroyed it in Daytona. Man, what a few weeks it’s been. I feel like I gave one away last week and to come back and do a performance like that, I’m really proud of that.”
And little Dawsonville was proud of Elliott in return, as the infamous billiard room sounded its signature emergency warning siren after Elliott’s win, a tradition dating back to when Bill drove and the siren would go off in his honor with every cup win. It’s a tradition that has continued since Chase reached the Cup level full-time in 2016.
Atlanta Motor Speedway, which was reconfigured and resurfaced after last season, was excellent from a racing standpoint. In fact, several individuals I spoke to both during and after the race all said the same thing or a derivative of it: if you didn’t know, you’d think the race was being run on a shorter version of Talladega Superspeedway, the race was like this close and competitive.
And yes, we even had a big one — but we’ll discuss that in column part 2.
Then there was the bad.
Corey LaJoie drove the race of his Cup career, leading 19 laps and appeared to be the only driver with a good chance of overtaking Elliott on the final lap.
But then the bad things happened – bad luck, that is.
Unfortunately, LaJoie swept up onto the track after being blocked by Elliott, lost control of his Chevrolet Camaro, swept the outside wall and then bounced back into traffic, rounding up several other drivers. NASCAR immediately threw the warning and Elliott was anointed the winner.
“The closest I’ve ever been, sure (to win),” LaJoie said after the race. “It was fun. It was nice to have that thing in the wind for once.
LaJoie went from what appeared to be a near-guaranteed second or third-place finish – if not a win – and ended up finishing with a very disappointing 21st because of the wreck.
“I made my move and it didn’t work out,” he lamented. “(Chase) has made a good block and the sirens are going off (unfortunately) in Dawsonville. … I wish the 7 car was in the victory lane. But if we keep running like this and more consistently, our time will come.”
In a way, Corey – the son of former Busch Series champion Randy Lajoie – was in completely uncharted territory. Until this season, he had captained only 27 rounds in the past 2 ½ seasons.
But he learned some valuable lessons on Sunday that will get him started.
“I went to school,” he said. “That was the first time I’ve led a restart on 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 back in that position next time I’ll be a little bit better prepared and hopefully we can do a little better and throw the blocks instead of letting the one move that late race because the guy is usually in that position in the catbird seat I had fun I know and hopefully we can have that 7 car up front more often.”
LaJoie admits that his attempt to overtake Elliott – had the race-decisive crash not happened – was a longshot at best.
“Of course I knew he was going to make a big run,” LaJoie said. “I really didn’t want to give it the bottom. I tried to give it a good really aggressive block. I felt I had enough room to give it a second.
“And he was there on the right side of my rear bumper, far enough to the back of the bumper to launch me forward. I hate that we destroyed some cars, but I don’t know what you’re doing. You go for the win or not. I go for option A every day of the week.
“We almost caught that Hail Mary we tried to throw today, but unfortunately we came up a little short. Nevertheless, I am proud of my boys here at Spire (Motorsports) and we will keep running.”
Then read part two, all about the ugly part of Sunday’s race
