Atlanta Motor Speedway

With a strong last-lap push from Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano rocketed into the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with an overtime victory in Sunday’s Quaker State 400 available at Walmart at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

In a two-lap shootout that sent the first Playoff race of the 2024 season six laps past the posted distance of 260 laps, Logano had the lead by more than a car-length when NASCAR called a caution on the final circuit for a mid-pack wreck behind the leader.

The victory was Logano’s second at Atlanta, his second of the season and the 34th of his career. The driver of the No. 22 Ford vaulted to fifth in the Playoff standings, but the win guaranteed him a spot in the next round.

“They just give me really fast cars on superspeedways, and we always find ourselves towards the front of them, (but) we just end up wrecking more times than not,” said Logano, who led twice for nine laps, a far cry from teammate Austin Cindric’s race-high 92.

“So, to be able to finally capitalize on a fast race car and win here in Atlanta again, I lived right over there in condo 805 for a long time (as a child racing Legend Cars), waking up dreaming of just racing on this racetrack.

“So pulling into Victory Lane here is always a special one. We had such a really good team here today. It’s awesome to get (sponsor) Autotrader into Victory Lane, and the JL Kids Crew (one of Logano’s charitable enterprises) are here today, so it’s really cool to finally win with them here.”

When NASCAR called the caution on the final lap, February Atlanta winner Daniel Suarez was inches ahead of Blaney, the defending series champion. But with the third-place finish that entailed surviving a three-car wreck on Lap 205, Blaney took over the series lead by five points over Christopher Bell, who finished fourth.

After a strong, consistent run throughout the race, Alex Bowman finished fifth, as Playoff drivers claimed nine of the top 10 positions.

The Lap 205 wreck Blaney survived proved the undoing of Martin Truex Jr. After repeated trips to pit road, Truex left the race 12 laps down and heads for next Sunday’s second Playoff race at Watkins Glen International 15th in the standings, 18 points below the current cutoff for the Round of 12.

Suarez raced beside Logano on the first lap of overtime but lost his pusher when Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain washed up the track in Turn 3 and fell back.

“No, definitely not satisfied,” Suarez said of the second-place result. “I am happy with it, but not satisfied. I lost my pusher, my teammate. He was doing a great job, and I felt like we were going to have a great shot at it.

“Ross was doing an amazing job of pushing, and I don’t know if he got a flat tire or something, but once I lost him, I knew it was going to be tough. But that is part of racing, right?”

The race was incident-free for the first 55 laps, but on the 56th circuit, calamity struck top-seeded Kyle Larson and fellow Playoff driver Chase Briscoe.

As cars at the front of the field were exiting Turn 2 on Lap 56, Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet, running third, broke loose and shot into the outside wall at roughly 160 mph.

As the car rebounded off the SAFER barrier and slid sideways in the middle of the track, Briscoe’s Ford slammed into Larson’s Camaro, ripping the left front quarter panel off the No. 14 Mustang.

Both Larson and Briscoe exited the race, in 37th and 38th, respectively, and scored one point each for their efforts on Sunday.

“I’m OK,” Larson said after leaving the infield care center. “Thankfully, everything held up well inside the car. That was a huge hit. I’m not really sure what caused it.

“I was actually sort of tight and loaded in the corner. And then I was pretty far around the corner, and it just stepped out. I don’t know, it all just happened really fast.”

Briscoe, who earned his Playoff spot with a victory a week earlier at Darlington Raceway, leaves Atlanta below the current cut line with a win-or-bust mentality.

“It was a big hit, one of the biggest hits I’ve had in a long time,” Briscoe said. “I’m glad I’m all right, and we just have to go win. That’s what we had to do at Darlington, and I know we’re capable of doing it again, so we’ll just have to go to Watkins Glen and Bristol and try to do the same.”

Larson leaves Atlanta in 10th place, 15 points above the current cut line for the Round of 12. Briscoe is 16th in the standings, 20 points on the wrong side of the equation.

Regular-season champion Tyler Reddick came home sixth, overcoming issues on pit road. Non-Playoff driver Kyle Busch finished seventh after leading 24 laps in the final stage. Chase Elliott was eighth, followed by William Byron and Cindric.

Collected in the last-lap wreck, Playoff driver Harrison Burton finished 31st and is 15 points behind Ty Gibbs, who finished 17th after leading 37 laps and is 12th in the standings. Brad Keselowski ran 19th and is tied with Gibbs.

Denny Hamlin ran at the back of the pack throughout the race and was collected in the last-lap wreck, finishing 24th. He heads for Watkins Glen 11th in the standings, a mere two points ahead of Keselowski.

It was a race of remarkable ebb and flow.

It was race of breathtaking four-wide action into corners not built to accommodate such derring-do.

And it was totally appropriate that Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway would end in a three-wide photo finish, with Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suárez eking out a victory over Ryan Blaney by what looked to be an inch or two at the finish line.

NASCAR timing and scoring showed Suárez ahead of Blaney by 0.003 seconds at the stripe, with Kyle Busch in third, 0.007 seconds behind the race winner.

As the three drivers sped through the final two corners, Suárez held the outside lane with Blaney on the bottom and Busch in the middle. Suárez surged forward approaching the finish line to earn his second career victory—and his first since June of 2022 at Sonoma—by the thinnest of margins.

Suárez, whose No. 99 Trackhouse Race Chevrolet suffered damage to the hood on a Lap 2 crash in Turn 1, had the lead for a restart with five laps left, after the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Josh Berry collided with Carson Hocevar’s No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet on Lap 249 of 260 to cause the 10th and final caution of the race. 

Blaney, the defending series champion, grabbed the top spot almost immediately and held it for four laps, but Suárez and Busch mounted runs on the final lap on in the top and middle lanes, respectively. Blaney chose to make his bid for victory from the bottom lane and fell just short.

“It was so damn close, man,” said Suárez, still marveling that he was the winner. “It was so damn close. It was good racing. Ryan Blaney there, Kyle Busch, Austin Cindric also was doing a great job giving pushes. In the back straightaway he didn’t push me because he knew I was going to (screw) his teammate, but, man, what a job.

“We wrecked (on) Lap 2. The guys did an amazing job fixing this car. I can’t thank everyone enough, Trackhouse Racing, Freeway Insurance, Chevrolet, all the amazing fans here. Let’s go!”

As the final lap unfolded, Blaney was shocked at the force of the runs challenging him.

“I thought I laid back enough in (Turns) 1 and 2 to not let both lanes get that big of a run,” Blaney said. “I did that like the three laps before the end, and I was able to manage it kind of fairly well, and they just got both lanes shoving super hard. I just chose the bottom, and it was the safest place to be.

“What a cool finish. Appreciate the fans for sticking around. That’s a lot of fun. That’s always a good time when we can do that, race clean, three-wide finish to the end. Happy for Daniel. That was cool to see. Fun racing with Kyle. I can’t complain; I’ve won them by very, very little, too, so I can’t complain too much when I lose them by that much.”

To Busch, the outcome was predictable, given the positions of the cars in the final two corners.

“Yeah, typically whoever is behind getting into (Turn) 3 prevails at the start-finish line with the side draft and everything, so I was… I think I was second to the 12 (Blaney) right there, and the 99 was the furthest back, and he made the ground back up with the side draft and stuff…

“It’s good to see Daniel get a win. We were helping each other, being Chevy team partners and working together there. Shows that when you do have friends and you can make alliances that they do seem to work, and that was a good part of today.”

The start of the race was a harbinger of the wild finish.

Moments after crossing the finish line to complete the first lap of the race, Todd Gilliland checked up near the front of the field and stacked up the cars behind him. All told, 16 cars were involved, a track record for a single incident at the 1.54-mile speedway.

The machines of Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Noah Gragson all sustained heavy damage. Austin Dillon and Harrison Burton, early victims in last Monday’s DAYTONA 500, both were part of the melee.

Burton was able to continue, as was Suárez who made multiple pit stops as his crew worked to repair has car. Dillon lost two laps on pit road but regained them as the beneficiary under the third and fourth cautions.

If the Lap 2 wreck was an impediment for nearly half the field, the first attempt at green-flag pit stops in Stage 2 was equally discomfiting. Pole winner Michael McDowell locked his brakes near the pit road entrance in Turn 3 and collided with DAYTONA 500 winner William Byron, costing both drivers a lap.

Speeding penalties impeded Busch, Berry, Ross Chastain, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Bubba Wallace, with Erik Jones’ crew drawing a penalty for a runaway tire. Like McDowell and Byron, those drivers all found themselves a lap down after their respective pass-throughs under green.

Through subsequent cautions, however, they regained the lead lap, and Busch raced his way into contention for the win.

Cindric finished fourth, followed by Wallace, Stenhouse, Chastain, McDowell and Chris Buescher, all of whom made commendable recoveries to earn top-10 results.

The race featured a record 48 lead changes among 14 drivers – the fifth straight race at Atlanta with more than a dozen leaders. Gilliland led a race-high 58 laps, a team record for a single race by a Front Row Motorsports driver. Cindric was out front for 32 laps, followed by Blaney (31) and Busch (28).

Suárez led twice for nine laps.

Joey Logano, the defending race winner, received unwelcome news before the start of the race. The driver of the No. 22 Ford was deemed to have violated NASCAR rule 14.3.1.1 governing driver protective clothing and equipment.

Logano’s left driving glove featured webbing between the thumb and forefinger, an unauthorized modification of SFI-approved equipment. Under an at-track penalty, Logano dropped from the second position to the rear of the field for the start and began to serve a pit-road pass-through when the pileup in Turn 1 on Lap 2 slowed the field.

The misery of others was serendipity for Logano, who completed his pass-through without losing a lap. By the end of Stage 1 he was 12th, and after the top 10 pitted during the stage break, Logano was second when Stage 2 went green.

On Lap 99, Logano passed Gilliland for the lead as part of a pack of six Fords at the front of the field. On the final lap the stage, however, Logano’s fortunes soured once again when his No. 22 Mustang pushed up the track on the backstretch and collected Chris Buescher and Denny Hamlin.

Towed to his pit stall, Logano lost eight laps and any hope he might have had of defending his 2023 victory.

Neither an early spin nor damage to his No. 24 Chevrolet could prevent William Byron from winning Sunday night’s rain-shortened Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

With a storm approaching the 1.54-mile track, Byron surged past AJ Allmendinger into the lead on Lap 167 and remained out from until an accident in Turn 3 involving Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Preece and Bubba Wallace caused the seventh caution of the evening on Lap 178.

With Byron out front, the NASCAR Cup Series cars circled the track until the rain arrived and began falling more heavily. NASCAR brought the cars to pit road and red-flagged the race at 9:47 p.m. after 185 laps were complete.

With severe weather moving into the area, the sanctioning body called the race and made Byron the first four-time winner in the series this season. The victory was Byron’s second at Atlanta and the eighth of his career.

Daniel Suárez was second when NASCAR called the race, with Allmendinger running third. Michael McDowell and Kyle Busch completed the top five.

Crew chief Rudy Fugle called Byron to pit road on Lap 125 under caution for a pileup in Turn 2 that damaged the cars of Erik Jones, Ross Chastain, Corey LaJoie, Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs.

That enabled Byron to restart fourth on Lap 165 after roughly half the field (cars that had not pitted since Lap 95) came to pit road on Lap 161. Two laps later, Byron had the lead.

Byron hardly looked like a winner after spinning through the grass on Lap 80 and losing a lap getting to pit road. But the 25-year-old from Charlotte, N.C., regained the lost circuit as the beneficiary under caution for Kyle Larson’s spin on Lap 92.

“It’s cool, man,” Byron said. “We went through so much throughout the night—spinning through the infield, destroyed the bottom of the car dragging it around the apron trying to stay on the lead lap. At that point, you just don’t have the grip, so I was real edgy back in traffic, but Rudy made a good call to pit there and then stay out.

“Once we got towards the front, it was OK. We could make the right decisions, block OK, and I got the lead from AJ and was able to manage the run. Just a crazy night.”

The race was a boon not only for Byron, who leads the Playoff standings, but for winless drivers around the Playoff bubble. First, there was no new winner in the series to reduce the number of spots available on points.

Moreover, Suárez, Allmendinger and McDowell improved their chances with top-five finishes. Those three drivers all gained ground on Chase Elliott, who is trying to qualify for the Playoffs despite missing seven of the 19 races this season.

Elliott wasn’t a factor on Sunday night, failing to earn any stage points and finishing 13^th.

Despite his early struggles, Byron was pleased that handling played such an important part in the racing on the recently repaved racing surface.

“It was awesome—that’s all you can ask for on a superspeedway,” Byron said. “We want handling to matter. We want to be able to drive the things. I felt like the first stage was really fun. I was able to make some moves on the bottom.

“And you’re lifting every corner, so it’s different than a 550 (horsepower) old-style race. It’s more packed up, but still handling matters, and guys can make aggressive moves… I’m thankful for the whole team and just staying in it, ‘cause we were a lap down, and it could have been over.”

The race started with team owner Richard Childress driving pace laps in the No. 29 Chevrolet that launched Kevin Harvick’s career with an Atlanta win after Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001. It wasn’t Harvick’s night, however. After a late spin, he finished 30^th in his final run at Atlanta. Harvick is retiring from Cup racing at the end of the season.

Deftly maneuvering his No. 22 Ford through the final two laps of Sunday's Ambetter Health 400, Joey Logano finished the NASCAR Cup Series race where he started—at the front of the field.

With a push from Christopher Bell on the backstretch on the final lap, Logano moved to the outside of leader Brad Keselowski with huge momentum and charged past Keselowski's No. 6 Ford into the lead.

Logano pulled down to the inside lane through the final two corners and crossed the finish line .193 seconds ahead of Keselowski and .194 seconds ahead of third-place Bell.

"Yeah, first off so special to win Atlanta for me," said Logano, a Connecticut native who began to refine his talent racing Legends cars at Atlanta. "So many memories of me and my dad racing right here on the quarter mile. This is the full circle for us. So many memories gritting over there with the Legends car, racing, having a big time.

"Dreaming of going straight at the quarter mile and going onto the big track. That was always the dream to do it. To finally win here means so much to me here personally, but the team.

"The Auto Trader Mustang—this thing was an animal. Very, very fast. Able to lead a ton of laps, race really hard there at the end, get a good push from the 20 (Bell) to clear myself. Huge victory. Nice to get one early in the season. Always feels better, but what a great day for us."

Logano's first victory of the season and first at Atlanta was no surprise. On Saturday, the reigning series champion led eight Ford drivers into the top eight starting positions for Sunday's race.

Logano won the first stage wire-to-wire, leading the first 63 laps. In Stage 2, he finished second to Team Penske teammate Austin Cindric. All told, Logano led 140 of the 260 laps. Keselowski was second with 47 laps led.

The victory was Ford's first of the season after Chevrolet drivers claimed trophies in the first four events. Logano is the second straight driver to win from the pole at Atlanta, following Chase Elliott last summer.

Disappointed with second place, Keselowski was nevertheless elated with the quality of racing in the closing laps.

"The coolest thing about this race is two veterans showed you can run a race here side-by-side, bump-drafting, and not wreck the field," Keselowski said. "It can happen if you race respectfully. I thought everybody did a great job.

"We were right there. Proud of my team and the effort. Nothing much we could do there at the end."

Not that there wasn't plenty of action before the final laps ended with Logano's 32^nd career victory.

After two relatively placid stages where single-file racing predominated, the intensity increased exponentially as the end of the race approached.

On Lap 190, one lap after Kevin Harvick had taken the lead for the first time, Chastain pulled up close behind Harvick in the draft. Harvick's No. 4 Ford broke loose and triggered a massive wreck on the backstretch that involved 14 cars.

Harvick was eliminated, along with William Byron, Chris Buescher, Harrison Burton and BJ McLeod. The defending race winner, Byron was seeking his third straight Cup victory of the season.

"It looked like the No. 1 (Chastain) and the No. 4 just got connected there into Turn 1 and got the No. 4 loose," Byron said after a mandatory visit to the infield care center. "It's just part of racing. That's the way it goes—not really in our control. We were up there running in the top-five and doing what we needed to do."

Harvick's assessment of the wreck was essentially the same.

"I think he just caught me so quick right there in the middle of the corner, and then he kind of was up on the right rear part of the (car) and he came back down, and when he came back down it just spun the thing out," Harvick said. "I don't think he actually even hit me, but it started chattering the rear tires, and then I was just along for the ride."

Nineteen laps later, a five-car accident off Turn 4—triggered when one of then-leader Aric Almirola's tires went flat—knocked Almirola, Kyle Larson and Daniel Suárez out of the race.

"There was nowhere to go," Larson said ruefully. "Nobody had been having tire issues, so I wasn't even expecting the No. 10 (Almirola) to have a tire issue in front of me. Even if I did, I didn't have time to react.

"It's a bummer. Just frustrating.. I was finally up front on this style of race track and still end up with a DNF (did not finish). I don't know—just frustrating."

Corey LaJoie finished a career-best fourth, followed by Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Erik Jones, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch. LaJoie also gave Logano a push as the winner worked his way back to the front.

"I hope he gives me a shout-out for pushing him," LaJoie said. "Gave him a good shot there at the end."

Chase Elliott is a former NASCAR Cup Series champion and currently the 2022 title leader. But finally scoring a dramatic victory Sunday afternoon at his home track – Atlanta Motor Speedway – in front of a vocal and adoring home crowd ranks right up there as far as he’s concerned.

Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet led a race best 96 of the 260 laps and held off a charging field to win Sunday’s Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart, ultimately securing the trophy when the caution flag came out in the closing portion of the frenzied final lap.

Corey LaJoie, who was dueling it out with Elliott on that last lap, brought out that caution after hitting the wall on the backstretch in a final attempt to pull alongside and pass Elliott for what would have also been a popular first career NASCAR Cup Series victory for the well-liked LaJoie.

“This one’s up there for sure, to win at your home track is a real big deal I think to any race car driver,’’ said Elliott, 26, of nearby Dawsonville, Ga. “I watched a lot of guys do it over the years, Jimmie [Johnson] out in California. We haven’t really had a very good run here, so I felt like today was a good opportunity for us.

“I’m just so proud. This is obviously home for me and home to a lot of great fans who made a lot of noise today. Couldn’t be more proud of our team.”

Obviously disappointed not to earn the victory, but not disheartened, LaJoie said he was encouraged by the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet team’s work on Sunday and boosted by the confidence of being in position to win late in a race.

“Closest I’ve ever been, for sure that was fun’’ LaJoie said. “I’m proud of my guys at Spire and everyone whose helped us out.

“I made my move and it didn’t work out, and the siren is ringing in Dawsonville (Ga.) unfortunately,’’ LaJoie said referencing the famed Dawsonville (Ga.) Pool Room where the owners ring a bell to celebrate each of Elliott’s victories.

With 27 lead changes among 12 drivers and 13 caution periods, it was an eventful day on the newly reconfigured and re-paved Atlanta Motor Speedway’s 1.54-mile track. And there was plenty of drama from the hometown kid winning his series-best third race of the year to several dust-ups among popular drivers.

Ross Chastain, who had a busy day on track and was part of a couple of those incidents, rallied to finish runner-up to Elliott.

“I hated that I took the best car here and I tore it up a couple times, but yeah, it’s incredible,’’ Chastain said of rebounding to score his fifth top two finish of the season.

“Hats off to Chevrolet and Trackhouse for bringing this fast of a Jockey Chevrolet to be able to come back. Our road crew and pit crew did an awesome job to rebound through all the damage repair and we had a shot and I got inside of the 9 [Elliott] coming off [turn] 2 coming to the checkered and the caution came out.”

After being collected in a nine-car accident just before the race’s mid-point, Chastain worked his way forward again only to make contact with veteran Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin as the two were running in the top 10 late in the race. The pair have had run-ins previously this season and Hamlin, whose car was badly damaged, was not happy after the race.

“Everyone has different tolerance levels and as you all know, I’ve reached my peak,’’ Hamlin said.

Team Penske rookie Austin Cindric – winner of the season opening Daytona 500 – finished third, with Petty GMS Motorsports’ Erik Jones and Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney rounding out the top five.

Chastain’s Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suarez was sixth, followed by Justin Haley, Aric Almirola, Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick rounding out the top 10.

With the victory, Elliott extended his championship lead over Blaney to 47 points. Chastain is now third, 50 points behind Elliott.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to competition next weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with the Ambetter 301 on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Stewart-Haas Racing driver Aric Almirola is the defending race winner.

It was superspeedway racing with all the trimmings.

"New" Atlanta Motor Speedway produced a fifth different 2022 winner-William Byron, who managed to keep an angry pack of drafting cars behind him for the final 10 laps of Sunday's Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.

In a race that produced 46 lead changes among 20 drivers-both track records-Byron crossed the finish line .109 seconds ahead of Christopher Bell and .145 seconds ahead of Ross Chastain.

Bell, however, was penalized for passing below the boundary line on the backstretch on the final lap and was demoted to 23rd, the last position on the lead lap. That elevated Chastain to his second straight runner-up finish.

Byron took the lead from Bubba Wallace on Lap 316 of 325 and held it the rest of the way.

"It was so different," said Byron, who collected his third NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which had undergone a major repaving and reconfiguration since the series raced at the 1.54-mile track last July.

"Honestly, the last few laps there and trying to manage the gap to Bubba and trying to not get too far out front. You know, my spotter Brandon (Lines), his first win, so congrats to him. Thanks to this whole team. They've done a great job this year.

"Lots of changes with the Next Gen car. The (No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports) Chevrolet was awesome there. Worked hard overnight. Had a pretty rough practice and worked hard on it and got it handling well, like I told you. It was kind of an intermediate style with a little bit of speedway into it, so a lot of fun."

In essence, track owner Speedway Motorsports Inc. transformed an intermediate downforce track into a mini-Daytona, and NASCAR responded by mandating a superspeedway competition package for the first race on the new asphalt.

Those who doubted that the dramatic changes would produce nail-biting side-by-side racing were quickly proven wrong, as many of the race teams left the track with destroyed race cars and drivers with payback on their minds.

Byron managed to steer clear of the chaos, but Chastain did not. Leading on Lap 94 near the end of Stage 1, Chastain blew a right rear tire on his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet and slammed in the outside wall in Turn 2.

Chastain lost two laps for improper fueling under NASCAR's damaged vehicle policy but regained them as the beneficiary under two straight cautions. Deft repair work by his crew kept him competitive.

"That's the fight in Trackhouse," Chastain said. "This Gen 7 car, to take a lick like that, blow a tire out of nowhere and leading, just cruising, blow a right rear, slam the wall. Thought our day was over. Our guys went underneath the car, got the toe closer, and we got the balance back where I could drive it.

"And just the Chevy was fast. It was so fast. I mean, we were fighting with Will there at the beginning. It's so cool to race with buddies. I'm getting to race with my-I only have a few, but the last few weeks I've been able to race with my buddies."

Like Chastain, Kurt Busch was collected in a major accident (Lap 145) but recovered to run third as the highest-finishing Toyota. Daniel Suarez was fourth, giving Trackhouse Racing-co-owned by Justin Marks and pop star Pitbull-two cars in the top five.

Corey LaJoie came home fifth, scoring the first top five of his Cup career. Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano and Alex Bowman completed the top 10.

All told, 28 of the 37 cars that started the race were involved in collisions. That number included Wallace, who was collected in a wreck with Justin Haley and Buescher approaching the checkered flag. Wallace finished 13th.

Notes: Three different Hendrick Motorsports drivers have won three of the first five races this season, with Kyle Larson taking the checkered flag at Fontana and Bowman taking the trophy at Las Vegas… The race featured 11 cautions for 65 laps… Byron led eight times for 111 laps. Chastain was second in laps led with 42.

Kurt Busch out-dueled his younger brother Kyle Busch in the pair's fourth career 1-2 finish to secure his 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs position and take his 33rd career victory in Sunday's Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart.

Busch, 42, has been particularly good at the 1.5-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway. Sunday's win was his fourth there, most among the current field, and the last trophy given before the historic NASCAR track is repaved and reconfigured going forward.

More importantly Sunday's work was a big statement for Busch, who started the race with only a 25-point buffer in the championship standings with six races left to set the 16-driver Playoffs field. Now with the win, he's "in" and his emotions climbing out of Chip Ganassi Racing's No. 1 Chevrolet certainly reflected the relief and joy.

He simultaneously earned a Playoffs position and evened the score with his brother – each have won two races in the four times they have finished first and second.

"Hell yeah, we beat Kyle," a smiling Kurt Busch said after climbing out of his car, putting his fists in the air and turning toward the cheering crowd in the grandstands.

"What a battle on an old-school race track," said Busch, who has 33 career NASCAR Cup Series wins.

"It's been one of those years where I knew we were going to have our back against the wall, just above the [Playoffs] cut-off line and needed to race hard and race smart."

Not too surprisingly, Kyle Busch's mood standing by his car on pit lane was markedly different than his brother's. He felt like Kurt's Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Ross Chastain interfered a bit as the two brothers were fighting for the race lead while navigating lapped traffic.

Kurt led a race high 144 of the 267 laps – the most he's led in a single race since 2015 (291 laps at Richmond, Va.) and the two each won a Stage. Kurt came out behind his brother on track when the final round of pit stops cycled out, but ultimately passed Kyle for good with 25 laps remaining and crossed the finish line 1.237 seconds ahead of his brother. Kyle was able to pull alongside Kurt with seven to go, but unable to make the pass in lapped traffic.

"I gave everything I had there early and then just smoked it behind the 42 [Chastain] obviously, shows you what kind of driver he is," Kyle Busch said. "Just trying to fight hard after that when I got passed.

"Great effort, the guys gave me a great piece," Kyle continued. "The 1 (Kurt Busch) was definitely better than us today, I just thought I had him."

Kyle's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. finished third, rallying from a 37th place starting position. Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman was fourth followed by Penske Racing's Ryan Blaney, who won at Atlanta this March.

Tyler Reddick, Georgia native Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Matt DiBenedetto and Brad Keselowski rounded out the Top-10.

Noticeably absent from that group is the series' only four-race winner Kyle Larson. He ran among the top five for most of the race, but was penalized for speeding on pit road during his final pit stop. He instead finished 18th.

Championship points leader Denny Hamlin, who is still looking for his first win of 2021, finished 13th. He also was handed a pit road penalty early in the race, which was red-flagged for about 20 minutes just after the completion of Stage 2 so track workers could repair the track surface.

The series moves to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway 1-miler next week for the Foxwood Resort Casino 301 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

With five races remaining to set the 16-driver Playoffs field, 12 drivers have now earned automatic bids with a race victory. Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, who rallied to an 11th place finish Sunday, Austin Dillon and Reddick are the four highest-ranked drivers on points.

You can call Ryan Blaney "The Spoiler."

With a pass for the lead with eight laps left in Sunday's Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Blaney took the air out of an otherwise dominating performance by Kyle Larson, who had to settle for second place after winning the first two stages and leading 269 of 325 laps.

"Gosh, we had a great long-run car all day," Blaney said after climbing from his No. 12 Team Penske Ford. "It took us a little bit to get going. I was pretty free all day, so we made a really good change to tighten me up where I needed it.

"It looked like Kyle was getting loose, and I'm happy it worked into our favor that there were a couple of long runs at the end (that) let us kind of get there, and he got slowed up behind some lapped traffic… It's nice to close out a race like that—it was awesome."

Blaney's first victory at Atlanta and the fifth of his career extended the streak of different NASCAR Cup Series winners this season to six. The victory was the fifth straight at the 1.54-mile track for Ford drivers.

For the fourth time in his career, Larson swept the first two stages of a race and failed to win the event.

"I think he (Blaney) just got a lot better that last stage, and that changed up my flow of the race a little bit," said Larson, who won each of the first two stages by more than six seconds. "I could get out to such big leads, and I could take care of my stuff and run the bottom where it was maybe slower, but I could take care of my tires.

"He was fast there (in the final run), and I just wanted to maintain that gap that I had, so I had to run in the faster part of the race track and just used my stuff up. He was a lot better than me there late in the run. I hate to lead a lot of laps and lose, but we had a really good car that we brought to the track. Our (No. 5) Hendrick Cars Chevy was stupid-fast there for a long time. I don't know if we got that much worse, or if he got way better."

Alex Bowman ran third, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher, William Byron, Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick completed the top 10.

The first two stages featured only one caution for an on-track incident. On a restart on Lap 113, after the break at the end of Stage 1, Kyle Busch spun his tires at the front of the pack in the outside lane, causing Chase Elliott and Kurt Busch to check up behind him.

Kurt Busch steered down to the middle lane, but off-center contact from Hamlin's Toyota sent the No. 1 Chevrolet into the Turn 1 wall and out of the race.

"Yeah, I think the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) was the outside-lead car," said Kurt Busch, who ran near the front of the field throughout the first stage. The No. 9 (Elliott) kind of checked-up, too. I checked up… It was just the accordion effect and then I jumped to the middle. I'm like ‘I'm here'; I positioned myself. It wasn't like I rearranged my lanes and made another block.

"He (Hamlin) didn't do anything vicious or malicious there. It's a 500-miler, and these are the days that it hurts the worst. This absolutely hurts the worst because we had a top-five, winning Monster Energy Chevy."

Elliott, the reigning series champion, sustained damage on that same restart, but his troubles didn't become terminal until the third stage, when his engine blew to cause the fifth caution of the afternoon.

"Yeah, obviously we broke a motor there later on," Elliott said. "We got some damage there on that restart. Kyle (Busch) kind of spun his tires and then I was pushing him, and Kurt (Busch) was pushing me. We all just really jammed together hard and ended up hurting the nose some. I don't know if that had something to do with breaking the engine or not."

Early tire troubles ruined the afternoon for defending race winner Harvick, who pitted with a flat left rear as the rest of the field restarted on Lap 32 after a competition caution. Larson lapped Harvick later in the first stage, and the 2014 series champion didn't get the lap back until he took a wave-around under the fifth caution, for Elliott's blown engine.

Harvick battled back to finish 10th but could advance no further.