“We’re kinda new to this”: Chase Elliott soaks in rare “podium champagne” celebration with Shane van Gisbergen and Christopher Bell in Mexico City

Chase Elliott was thrilled after his third-place finish in Mexico City's Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course. Sunday (June 15) marked the first international Cup points race in over 60 years, where race winner Shane van Gisbergen and fellow podium finishers Christopher Bell and Elliott celebrated with champagne.

NASCAR staged a podium ceremony with sombreros, music, trophies, and champagne in classic F1 style. Elliott and Bell initally appeared to struggle with the champagne, but later managed to spray it around. Elliott also shared a clip of the celebrations on X, where he could be seen pouring the rest of his champagne on van Gisbergen.

"We're kinda new to this podium champagne stuff 😅😂," Chase Elliott wrote.

Elliott, who qualified in 12th place, battled with teammate, Alex Bowman, in the closing laps for the third place. Meanwhile, Bell finished 16.5 seconds behind Shane van Gisbergen.

In the final part of the race, van Gisbergen pulled away easily on the 2.4-mile Mexico City track. Bell and van Gisbergen, who led a race-high of 60 laps started side-by-side during the last restart on lap 69 but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver briefly dropped to third. He later passed Alex Bowman to take second after he had qualified 31st after rain changed qualifying and ran 20th after stage one. Smart pit strategy helped him move up.

Wet conditions on Friday (June 13) shuffled schedules and pushed back both practice sessions for the Cup teams. The qualifying sessions were also shortened by the weather.

"Halfway decent" - Chase Elliott on final restart after an 'up and down all day' performance

Chase Elliott's podium finish at the 15-turn road course was his eighth top-10 of the 2025 season. During his post-race interview, Elliott commented on the final run of the day and mentioned his 'decent top 3' finish after a chaotic restart.

"I felt like we were in a really good spot....I thought, to be honest, that was going to be the race for the win there initially," Chase Elliott said (via speedwaydigest.com).

"We were kind of up and down all day and finally got going there a few runs from the end and Al made us a good call to get us on tires. Finally had a restart go halfway decent and got a decent top 3 out of it," he added.

The Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevy driver grabbed 36 points this weekend and moved one spot up in the Cup points standings to fourth place behind Christopher Bell and HMS teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson.

However, Elliott has not reached victory lane in the first 16 races of this season, and his last win came at Texas in April of last year. He did win the exhibition race, Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray earlier this year.