Chase Elliott (9) leads Alex Bowman (88) and Ryan Preece (47) to the finish line to win a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, April 28, 2019, in Talladega, Ala.
Talladega Superspeedway tweeted a thread of photos inviting followers to tour the “post-apocalyptic wasteland” of garbage, NASCAR memorabilia and other burnt debris left behind by fans after Sunday’s Geico 500 race in Alabama.
CHASE ELLIOTT LEADS CHEVROLET SWEEP AT TALLADEGA NASCAR RACE
Georgia native Chase Elliott zipped into the first place spot on the final lap in the GEICO 500 Sunday, achieving Chevrolet's first victory of the season in the tenth race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
But the race was far from over for the clean-up crew at the racetrack. Beer cans, bananas, a bicycle seat and what appeared to be a bikini top littered the lawn around the raceway. One photo of a “College starter pack” showed a crushed beer can, a box of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a Pedialyte. Another post showed a picture of a sign rowdy fans turned upside-down.
Talladega Superspeedway found a "college starter pack" in the debris left after the GEICO 500 Sunday.
Talladega Superspeedway posted photos showing burnt tents and skooters, an abandoned kiddy pool in a muddy puddle and even what appeared to be a “hot tub time machine.”
“Whoever brought this to North Park was feelin’ realllll optimistic,” the raceway wrote, poking fun at one image of a hairdryer that suggests a diehard fan wanted to style her –do race-side. Others came prepared to move in but conveniently left behind two televisions, a recliner chair, a pillow, some clothing and even a mayonnaise bottle.
Twiiter users replied to the raceway's thread, saying the mess was "disgusting" and that those people "should be ashamed of themselves." Meanwhile, the Talladega team remained a good sport about it, getting its frustration out online.
Elliott took the lead shortly after a restart with four laps to go and worked with three other Chevy drivers to hold off the rest of the field. He won for the first time since October and went to victory lane about 150 miles from his hometown in Georgia.
Talladega Superspeedway posted an image of a "hot tub time machine" left behind by NASCAR fans. (Talladega Superspeedway)
His Hall of Fame father Bill Elliott won twice at Talladega in the 1980s.
"Dad's history, obviously very cool," Chase Elliott said. "To me the biggest piece of today was just how much of a home race it felt like after the race. I was blown away by the people and how fired up everybody was. That was an unbelievable experience. We are close to home, so that's cool, and they made me feel that way.
An abandoned kiddy pool left at the Talladega Superspeedway. (Talladega Superspeedway)
The 2019 aerodynamics package had cars reaching higher speeds than NASCAR wanted in practice, so officials tried to slow them down with a late rules tweak. But the changes made the cars go even faster, leaving many veterans wary of the closing speeds and potential for chaos and high-speed crashes.
But the race was mostly wreck-free — until the final lap.
Elliott's victory ended a seven-race winning streak for Ford at Talladega. Penske Racing had won six of the last nine.
Talladega Superspeedway posted images of the obscure trash left behind after the GEICO 500 race Sunday.
But it was a Chevy celebration — for a change.
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"We needed to win this," said Alan Gustafson, Elliott's crew chief. "We needed to consolidate our efforts. We needed to break the streak that one of our rivals has here."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.