HAMPTON, Ga. -- Chase Elliott had the speed alone to win Saturday night's Cup Series race at EchoPark Speedway, yet Hendrick Motorsports also pointed to Alex Bowman's late move as a major factor.
As the team explained, Bowman's business decision paved the way for Elliott's win and a Hendrick celebration.
"I've just got to say that we're probably not sitting here without Alex Bowman and the move he made there and the teammate that he was tonight," Jeff Andrews, Hendrick president and general manager, said after the race.
"So just really proud of him and Blake (Harris, crew chief) for the car they had."
What happened that set up Bowman's teamwork?
Elliott passed Brad Keselowski on the white flag lap to take the lead. Keselowski responded by trying to back up to Bowman to get a push that would give him the run he needed to challenge Elliott for the win.
Bowman did not give this push. He dove to the inside and passed Keselowski. He cleared the RFK Racing driver and took second place, but Keselowski used a crossover to get back to the inside out of Turn 4.
The two drivers had a drag race to the finish line while Elliott cruised to his first win since Texas in April 2024.
THE SI-REEN SOUNDS AGAIN! @chaseelliott wins with a last-lap pass of @keselowski! pic.twitter.com/NHal3tq03c
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 29, 2025
"I think off of (Turn) 4 coming to the white, I alluded to it a second ago, but if (Bowman) takes me two-wide right there, the race is over more than likely," Elliott said. "We're going to drag each other back. There was a pretty big gap back to fourth, if I'm not mistaken. I haven't watched it back closely. The way I remember it, there was.
"We're kind of letting Brad get away. At that point we would have been side by side down the front and probably side by side through 1 and 2. We're never going to have enough time.
"He and I both knew that the only shot we as a company had at that juncture was to line up and push and hope that something worked out good in our favor because at that point it was two, one, and one. Whether it was he or I, obviously we both want to win. I recognize that he gave me a great shove. I recognize that he took his run on Brad, too, to try to get himself to second, which ultimately helped me as well."
The team mindset and the move to avoid Keselowski gave Elliott a secure spot in the playoffs. Bowman, for comparison, ended the night in third place and moved to 39 points above the playoff cutline.
The driver of the No. 48 continues to pursue a spot the playoffs while recovering from a string of bad luck that included a violent crash at Michigan and a back injury. This pursuit will continue at Chicago, the track where he won last season to get back into the playoffs.
"Hope those guys can get a win. I think they deserve it," Elliott said about the 48 team. "They've been fast. He's had a terrible run of luck, I feel like, over the last month. It would be nice to see him grab a win and get in."