Dawsonville's Elliott scores NASCAR Nationwide championship

AVONDALE, AZ - Brad Keselowski took advantage of a late-race caution to edge Kyle Busch for a Nationwide Series victory at Phoenix International Raceway, but Chase Elliott was the day's big winner at Saturday's DAV 200 - Honoring America's Veterans.<br /> <br /> Elliott, the 18-year-old son of 1988 Sprint Cup champion Bill Elliott, finished fifth to clinch the NASCAR Nationwide Series title, becoming the first rookie to accomplish the feat. The Elliott family joined the Pettys, Pearsons, Jarretts and Earnhardts in becoming families with father-son national touring series champions.<br /> He also becomes the first Georgian to win a Nationwide Series championship.<br /> <br /> Elliott, who won races at Texas, Darlington and Chicagoland this season, did what he needed to, finishing ahead of JR Motorsports teammate Regan Smith, who entered the race 48 points behind Elliott in the series standings and ran 10th.<br /> <br /> Elliott said he wasn't sure how to celebrate his series triumph. "I wasn't sure if it was OK to do a burnout lap or not," he said. "But I did one anyway because I was too excited not to.<br /> <br /> "I never would have even believed this was in my future. At the beginning of this season I had only run a couple of truck races. I feel lot of this is just due to the group of guys I was able to work with. Those guys were bringing me super-fast cars every week."<br /> <br /> Elliott's NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet did what Busch's Toyota could not do -- survive a green-white-checkered finish after Alex Bowman was slow on the track, bringing out a race-changing caution flag with slightly more than a lap to go.<br /> <br /> To that point, Busch had been dominant, seemingly on his way to his eighth win in 25 starts this season by leading 187 of the race's 206 laps. <br /> <br /> But Keselowski had other ideas, swooping to the inside and driving past Busch in Turn 1 of the final lap to prevent Busch from winning his fourth consecutive Nationwide start at Phoenix.<br /> <br /> "We didn't give up," Keselowski said. "Kyle was really fast