“This environment is special,” Elliott told FOX reporter Jamie Little. “This is a place that has, you know, had deep history in NASCAR, and I think they deserve this event,”

The Hendrick Motorsports driver held off a hard charge from 2023 Cup Series Champion Ryan Blaney and kept defending Clash winner Denny Hamlin at bay. Elliott won the pole by virtue of his qualifying time as well as his strong performance in his heat race on Saturday night.

The 2020 NASCAR Cup Champion led the most laps overall at 171, yet he did not go unchallenged. On lap 97, Hamlin ducked to the inside of Elloitt for the race lead while they both worked through lap traffic.

Hamlin, who started 2025 working with new crew chief Chris Gayle, moved his Joe Gibbs Toyota into the top spot. Tyler Reddick followed suit and set Elliott back to the third position as the drivers invented the halfway point of the event.

“Denny was really good there at the second half of that break,” Elliott said. He battled hard with Hamlin on the restarts and said, “I was afraid to lose control of the race and not be able to get it back.”

A pair of cautions within the first 20 laps of the restart allowed Hamlin to maintain his lead. However, as Hamlin fought an attack from Chris Buescher, he slid off of the preferred lane.

This allowed Elliott to make a bold three-wide move to contest the lead. He and Hamlin ran side by side for several laps before Hamlin yielded the position, and Elliott set sail.

At the same time, Blaney quietly worked his way through the field. His Penske Racing machine had faced significant adversity throughout the weekend, as the team was forced to make major repairs to the car before the main event.

These struggles forced Blaney to take a provisional based on 2024 points to qualify for the two hundred lap feature. That said, the driver of the No. 12 Menards Ford methodically moved past his competition.

By lap 147, Blaney had passed Hamlin for second and began to track down the race leader. He came within a car-length of Elliott, but was unable to make the pass when they faced lapped cars.

“Ryan kept me honest here at the end,” Elliott explained, despite the dominant show of speed.

Elliott’s victory adds yet another item to the list of shared father and son accolades in NASCAR. Now, both he and his father Bill Elliott have won a championship, All-Star Race and the Clash.

However, Elliott still seeks out the ever elusive Daytona 500 victory that his dad won in 1985 and 1987. The driver from Dawsonville, Georgia, has come up short in years past, but still eyes winning this historic crown jewel event on the schedule.

Now, NASCAR will return on February 16, for the 67th annual Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway. Coverage for the race can be found on FOX with pre-race ceremonies starting at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time.