Chase Elliott makes feelings clear for his loyal NASCAR fans who never gave up on him

After his long-awaited return to the top step at Echopark Speedway, Chase Elliott acknowledged his loyal NASCAR fans for 'not giving up hope'. The Hendrick Motorsports driver admitted that their unwavering support during his winless drought made him 'appreciate them even more'.

Saturday's Quaker State 400 bore witness to a chaotic race marred by an 18-car crash. Between 46 lead changes among 13 drivers, Elliott braved the wrecks and cautions to contend for the lead on the final laps. With a push from his teammate Alex Bowman on the final two laps, the #9 driver edged out Brad Keselowski with a narrow margin of 0.168 seconds.

The win snapped Elliott's 44-race winless drought, and he celebrated the momentus occasion by joining his fans in the stands as he high-fived them. The act was a nod to his loyal fans for sticking by him thoughout his dry spell. The gesture comes as no surprise, given how he earned the Most Popular Driver award for seven consecutive seasons.

Reflecting upon the same, Elliott spoke to NBC Sports on Sunday, June 29.

"I think it just kind of goes to show how great our fans have been to me and to us. It just kind of really makes you appreciate them even more for really sticking with us and not giving up hope, ultimately being able to give both me and my team an experience like that, because their determination and unwillingness to quit on us is really cool,” he said.

In addition to the race win, Chase Elliott cleared Austin Dillon in his head-to-head matchup of the In-Season Challenge. He'll now square off against John Hunter Nemechek in Round 2 at the Chicago Street Course.

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Chase Elliott reveals what it means to win in front of home crowd

Chase Elliott's win at Atlanta wasn't just his first win of the season, it was his second career victory at the hometown track, with his previous coming in July, 2022. Earlier this year, he placed 20th when NASCAR visited the same venue.

The Dawsonville, Georgia native spoke about sharing the win with his home crowd, saying (Via aforementioned source),

“Certainly if things work out, I’ll always cherish and enjoy them as much as possible, because they are hard to win. Nobody has anything promised to them. I recognize that. I’ll never take that for granted in those moments, especially to do that here at home.”

The Atlanta win had Chase Elliott landing at second in the driver's standings with 594 points. His HMS teammate Kyle Larson trails close behind with a five point deficit, while William Byron stays ahead by 37 points. As such, Alex Bowman is the only HMS driver without a win so far.