Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Corey LaJoie were involved in a multicar crash at Lap 150 during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
With just 10 laps remaining in Stage 2 of the Ambetter Health 400, Elliott was running 11th through Turns 3 and 4 in the high lane of a three-wide situation, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Chase Briscoe raced to his left. Briscoe’s car washed up the track into Stenhouse’s Chevrolet, which then sent Elliott into the SAFER barrier.
MORE: Atlanta results | At-track photos
The initial contact with the wall appeared to break Elliott’s right-rear toe link, rendering his handling uncontrollable. At the start/finish line, Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet broke sideways and contacted LaJoie’s No. 01 Ford and Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford.
“There’s, like, a million of those decisions during one of these races, and you just try to get a feel for it and I guessed wrong,” Keselowski said after being evaluated and released from the infield care center.
Elliott and LaJoie were able to drive their vehicles to the attention of their respective pit crews on pit road. Keselowski was unable to do the same and instead had his car towed to the garage area, where the team was permitted to repair the RFK Racing machine under new Damaged Vehicle Policy rules for the 2025 season.
Elliott rallied to a 20th-place finish. However, both LaJoie’s and Keselowski’s crews determined their damage was too severe and did not return to the race. LaJoie finished 38th and Keselowski, the 2012 Cup Series champion, finished 39th, last.
Keselowski’s disappointment didn’t deter him enjoying the tight-quarters racing at the 1.54-mile superspeedway. The field largely stayed double- and triple-wide, which Keselowski took joy in.
“It’s just intense racing. It’s great racing,” he said. “It’s fun to be a part of. Just hate we didn’t come out on top.”
Keselowski entered Sunday’s race 20th in the points standings and will take a hit with just one point earned at Atlanta. The team co-owner of RFK Racing is not concerned about his standings only two races into the 26-race regular season, though.
“We started off last year in a big points hole,” he said. “The potential in our cars seems to have increased from where we were last year. So, for us, we want to go out and run well at COTA (Circuit of The Americas). But I think everybody kind of knows that the real metric for the season is probably going to be more when we get through Phoenix and Vegas.”