The odds in the NASCAR Cup Series postseason are in Kyle Larson’s favor. It starts with being the No. 1 playoff seed as things kick off at Atlanta Motor Speedway (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET). The driver who has been the No. 1 seed has won the championship …
The odds in the NASCAR Cup Series postseason are in Kyle Larson’s favor.
It starts with being the No. 1 playoff seed as things kick off at Atlanta Motor Speedway (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET). The driver who has been the No. 1 seed has won the championship four times in the elimination era. Secondly, according to NASAR partner DraftKings, Larson is the odds-on favorite to claim the 2024 crown, not that the Hendrick Motorsports driver looks at or cares about the odds.
“No. No, I don’t care about the odds,” Larson said. “NASCAR, especially in the Next Gen era, is just crazy. There is so much inconsistency these days that you can easily find yourself in trouble; doesn’t matter if you have a 35- or 40-point buffer to the cutline currently.”
Larson has a 35-point advantage on the cutline as the postseason begins at Atlanta, but it’s just a 36-point gap to go from first to last (16th) on the playoff grid.
“You definitely have your favorites and guys who are really fast every week, but it’s NASCAR and Next Gen racing, so it’s always crazy,” Larson said. “There are always a couple of heavy guys that get knocked out somewhat early that could very well be deserving champions, so it’s hard to predict who is going to be in the final four but some good teams have the best shot currently. Like I said, a lot of stuff can happen.
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“There’s usually always a team or two that turns things up a lot in the playoffs and executes really well and makes it pretty far. Maybe not to the final four every year, but [they] can make it really far.”
Larson and the No. 5 team lead the series in wins (four), laps led (1,088), poles (five), and are tied with Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing for stage wins (10). The victories came on intermediates (Las Vegas; Kansas), a road course (Sonoma), and Indianapolis.
Of the first 26 races, Larson led laps in 18 of them.
“I think our strength is our speed; we’re really fast, I feel like, at every racetrack,” Larson said. “Our execution, I know it might not seem like it at times, but is great. I think we’ve also overcome a lot of adversity at times.
“We’re well-rounded as a team. We’ve gone to the final four the last three years, so I think that gives a lot of confidence as well.”
In 2021, when Larson won the Cup Series championship, he did so from the No. 1 seed.
Michael McDowell is once again on the pole for a NASCAR Cup Series superspeedway race. McDowell topped the chart Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway with a lap of 179.267mph (30.926s). It’s McDowell’s fifth pole of the season and the fifth of his …
Michael McDowell is once again on the pole for a NASCAR Cup Series superspeedway race.
McDowell topped the chart Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway with a lap of 179.267mph (30.926s). It’s McDowell’s fifth pole of the season and the fifth of his career. He has started no worse than second for a superspeedway race.
“It’s just great; I’m so proud of everybody at Front Row,” McDowell said. “We knew we’d have a shot based on Daytona and we sat on the pole here earlier [in the year], but to get this Blaster Ford Mustang its fifth pole of the year. We still have Talladega ahead, too, so we’re trying to win the most poles. Watkins Glen is coming up. We’ll keep fighting hard but really proud of the effort.”
Defending series champion Ryan Blaney (P) qualified second at 178.844mph; Todd Gilliland, third at 178.770mph; Josh Berry, fourth at 178.453mph and Austin Cindric (P), fifth at 178.430mph.
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Kyle Larson (P) qualified sixth at 178.367mph; Joey Logano (P), seventh at 178.361mph; Austin Dillon, eighth at 178.155mph; William Byron (P), ninth at 178.098mph and Chase Briscoe (P), 10th at 178.086mph.
The rest of the playoff drivers qualified 11th (Alex Bowman), 12th (Harrison Burton), 16th (Chase Elliott), 19th (Brad Keselowski), 20th (Ty Gibbs), 22nd (Martin Truex Jr.), 23rd (Tyler Reddick), 26th (Christopher Bell), 30th (Daniel Suarez), and 38th (Denny Hamlin).
Hamlin qualified 38th of 38 drivers in the field. He was over 10mph slower than McDowell’s pole speed, and his No. 11 team and Toyota quickly went to work when Hamlin pulled into the garage.
“They see a few red flags, certainly, so they’ll dig into it tonight and figure it out and get it fixed for tomorrow,” Hamlin said.
The recently restored home of the Tour Championship will challenge PGA Tour players in new ways.
ATLANTA – Defending FedEx Cup champion Viktor Hovland arrived at East Lake Golf Club on Tuesday, the same course he torched in 9-under 61 to win the Tour Championship a year ago, and expressed shock at the restoration project that was completed in less than one year.
“It looked completely different than it used to,” Hovland said. “It’s almost like you can’t imagine it.”
Xander Schauffele has never shot over par in 28 Tour Championship rounds, including the low 72-hole score at East Lake three times, but he has never won the FedEx Cup. East Lake has become a personal ATM, which is why when he was asked if there was a part of him that wanted to throw himself in front of a bulldozer and stop the construction, he smiled and said, “100 percent. My caddie as well. He probably would have gone first.”
He added: “To me, it’s got the same name; it’s East Lake Golf Club. It’s in the same property, similar square footage. But that’s about it. I think the only thing that’s the same are the directions of the hole.”
Hours after Hovland’s final putt dropped last August to secure the title, Andrew Green, who led renovations at Oak Hill, Inverness and Congressional, spearheaded the course restoration at East Lake, the oldest golf course in the city of Atlanta and where legendary golfers Bobby Jones and Alex Stirling learned the game.
Tom Bendelow laid out the original course at East Lake, back when it was known as Atlanta Athletic Club. Donald Ross built a new course on the same spot in 1915, which remained untouched until changes were made by George Cobb before the club hosted the 1963 Ryder Cup. Thirty years later, Rees Jones completed a renovation in advance of the course becoming the permanent home of the Tour Championship, the culminating event of the playoffs for the FedEx Cup, since 2005.
Green discovered a previously unknown aerial photograph of East Lake in digital archives from 1949 as his restoration inspiration. This photograph showed the original Donald Ross design in surprising detail and provided guidance on green shapes, bunker shapes and overall topography of the original design.
“We paired that with a set of photos we had right before George Cobb did his work, before the Ryder Cup, and now we’ve painted a complete picture of how things sat on the ground,” Green said. “At the heart of everything we’re doing, it’s finding ways to respect that past and legacy.”
Green – who also worked on Wannamoisett, a beloved Ross design in Rhode Island – took the East Lake team on a trip to the club in the summer of 2023 to look at its greens. They dropped a cell phone down as a hole location and rolled balls on every green, the beginning of a collaborative effort in which Green was given the final say.
“Decisions were made in the field with tape measures,” said Chad Parker, general manager and CEO at East Lake Golf Club. “If the ball lands here, it’s going to do this and the player is going to get rewarded and if it doesn’t it may go in the rough.”
The greens are more undulating with the size, shape, contouring and surrounding runoff areas of each green complex enhanced to create a distinct style and variability to the course. The putting surface at the uphill par-3 second, for instance, is over 9,000 square feet, nearly 3,000 square feet larger than previously with a sinister back-left pin placement perched over a swale.
Fairways have been converted to Meyer Zoysia, which plays firmer and will lead to increased roll, allowing the topography to play a greater role in the strategy of each hole. All greens have been converted to TifEagle Bermuda, which is expected to provide putting surfaces that have improved speed, consistency and overall playability. Many of the bunker shapes were inspired by the original Donald Ross design from 1913, with the most notable being the trench bunker on No. 17.
Water was also a particular focus of the restoration. Green’s team reclaimed a stream between the sixth and seventh holes, and the 14th hole, which included tee expansion, fairway recontouring and bunker positioning and led to the hole being converted from a par 4 to a par 5 for the tournament. Overall, the course was lengthened by less than 100 yards for the Tour Championship, which will play as a par 71 at 7,490 yards.
“It’s basically a new golf course from what it was before,” said world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
With the last piece of sod finally laid down on June 15, time wasn’t necessarily on Green’s sign, so the greens may be a touch firm. But one of golf’s grand dames is new again, and ready or not the top 30 in the FedEx Cup will attempt to pick her apart as they chase a record bonus pool of $100 million.
“Oh, there’s absolutely anxiety, for sure. But I think it just comes with the territory,” Green said. “For me, it’s about providing a canvas and letting the Tour and the guys who do this week in and week out for these players find the best way to find a test but then also allow them to find success.”
Kate Harpring hasn’t even begun her junior year at Marist in Atlanta. That’s the same high school her father, former NBA player Matt Harpring, attended. But that hasn’t stopped many prominent programs from making her offers already. She confirmed that Notre Dame is one of those programs on social media:
On the same day, Harpring also announced an offer from Iowa, which only added onto the list of schools that already have offers to her. Among the other schools hoping to add her as part of their 2026 recruiting class are Florida State, Clemson, Louisville, Maryland, Kentucky, Arizona, Utah and Vanderbilt. Needless to say, the Irish will have plenty of competition here.
We don’t know how the Irish would look as far as competitiveness by the time she arrives on campus. However, if many prominent schools already have made her offers, she obviously is something special. Hopefully, she chooses to prove that in South Bend.
Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.
CBS Sports says Georgia and Ohio State will advance to the title game and face off in Atlanta.
The 2024-25 College Football Playoff is going to be some spectacle when it comes about and the Oregon Ducks fully expect to be a part of it.
But according to CBS Sports, it will be Georgia and Ohio State, not the Ducks, left standing at the end with those two teams facing off in a virtual home game for the Bulldogs in Atlanta.
No doubt the Dogs and the Buckeyes have the talent to advance through the playoffs until the end, but the Ducks and other really good teams also have what it takes to play for the title.
In CBSSports’ scenario, a No. 5 Oregon will host Liberty and win easily. The Ducks make it to the semifinals after defeating Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl before losing to the Buckeyes in the Orange Bowl.
What makes it more difficult is the playoff system where a team might have to win at least three, if not four games to win it all. It’s a professional-type system and we have all seen upsets in the NFL, NBA and MLB where the “best” team doesn’t always make it all the way through.
With first round games, quarterfinals, semifinals and the championship game, there will be upsets throughout the regular season and most likely in the playoff. This should be college football’s version of March Madness where everything doesn’t go chalk.
The cream doesn’t always rise to the top and there are about 10 teams this season that has a legitimate case for themselves to have what it takes to play in Atlanta.
Unbelievably, the season is less than two months away to see how all of this will play out.
.@BCrawford247's full 2024 College Football Playoff projections are here 👀
Joey Logano said Saturday he shares in the responsibility of the No. 22 team being penalized by NASCAR for the webbed glove he wore last weekend. It was the left-hand glove Logano wore during qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway that cost him …
Joey Logano said Saturday he shares in the responsibility of the No. 22 team being penalized by NASCAR for the webbed glove he wore last weekend.
It was the left-hand glove Logano wore during qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway that cost him $10,000 after being sent to the rear of the field and having to serve a pass-through penalty. NASCAR deemed it was both a safety violation for modifying SFI safety equipment and a competition infraction because it was used to block air through the window net.
The Team Penske driver, however, didn’t admit as to who came up with the idea. But Logano did wear the glove when it was given to him by the team.
“That’s kind of how a lot of things work,” Logano said. “As a driver, you work with the team and hey, I’m going to take a portion of the responsibility of that, too, obviously. I should. I put the glove on. With that said, I didn’t build the glove. I didn’t make it on my own. I can’t sew, so that’s what it was and we had conversations about it.”
Logano will start from the pole Sunday in Las Vegas, his second pole in three weeks. It was a performance that came with a bit of a chip on his shoulder after the events of last week.
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“What I’m proud about as a team is, yeah, that was a tough situation for us. It was hard to go through and embarrassing, for sure,” Logano said. “But the fact [is] that we got through it and just move on and focus on the next week. We showed that we have some speed in our race car and to be able to put it on the pole here, to me, is a statement-type lap, so I’m proud of that.”
NASCAR did not review in-car footage from Daytona and Brad Moran, the Cup Series managing director, said they don’t know if Logano wore the glove for Daytona 500 qualifying. It was a random review of in-car camera footage at Atlanta that caught the webbed glove Logano was wearing. Logano did not comment on whether he wore the glove in Daytona.
Logano even went as far as to deny that wearing the glove made a difference.
“It didn’t do anything to speak of,” he said. “It was directionally an area that everybody goes to try to block that hole. You see everyone put their hand there; we just tried to cover more space.”
NASCAR revealed Saturday that the entirety of Joey Logano’s left glove was webbed last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway when he was penalized before the start of the Cup Series race. The two-time champion from Team Penske was sent to the rear of …
NASCAR revealed Saturday that the entirety of Joey Logano’s left glove was webbed last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway when he was penalized before the start of the Cup Series race.
The two-time champion from Team Penske was sent to the rear of the field and required to serve a pass-through penalty. Earlier this week, NASCAR also fined him $10,000.
It was a twofold penalty. NASCAR penalized Logano at the racetrack for a competition infraction by using the webbed glove to block air, while the fine was for a safety violation. The alteration to the glove modified an SFI-approved piece of safety equipment.
Brad Moran, NASCAR Cup Series managing director, showed the webbed glove to the media Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Moran explained the violation was found during a review of in-car camera footage from Logano’s car, which was viewed in slow motion. NASCAR was not tipped off about the glove, but it was a random safety check as NASCAR reviews in-car footage to see a driver’s helmet height, headrest height and movement in the cockpit.
“We have our safety cameras inside all the Cup cars and we review them quite often during practice and qualifying, and we look for oddities,” Moran said. “All on driver input from last year — they want safety improved and cleaned up. We’ve done a lot of shop visits over the last two years. We look for head surrounds. We look for hoses going to the helmets. We look for everything in the car to make sure it’s safe and we don’t catch anything. A lot of the new drivers, we’ll review them as well to make sure they’re sitting in their seats properly.”
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Moran said Logano was included in “about five cars” randomly checked at Atlanta. However, NASCAR does not know if Logano was using the same glove at Daytona International Speedway the week before, where it would also be common for drivers to put their hands up against the window net or in the opening between the window net and A post to keep air from coming into the cockpit.
“An SFI piece of protective equipment cannot be modified in any way,” Moran said. “It’s as delivered; that’s how SFI approves it, and SFI does not approve any glove with any webbing, obviously for safety reasons. … So the reason for that is obviously you can block more air. The drivers do put their hand up against the opening, which we’ve never really had a rule against it, but this obviously goes one step further, and this becomes not only a competition problem, it becomes a safety violation because that glove is no longer SFI approved.
“Regardless of what the material is made of, regardless of who put it on there, it’s not as delivered, it’s not as tested, and it’s an unapproved piece of SFI safety equipment.”
Moran also showed the roof rails confiscated from the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 and No. 41 cars. Both pieces came from the right side of the vehicle. The roof rails are team pieces and not single-sourced supplied parts.
Stewart-Haas Racing was docked 35 driver and owner points to both teams. Moran explained it was only the Nos. 10 and 41 cars with the infraction. The other two Stewart-Haas Racing cars and the rest of the field were checked and found to be within compliance.
“They’re a team part that is designed to be built off a CAD file, so there’s really no gray (area),” Moran said. “They have to be built exactly to CAD. Unfortunately, we had the No. 41 and the No. 10…the right side – there are three per side; they sit in a groove on top of the greenhouse — they’re meant to sit flat. So the problem we had with these, and they were the exact same for both cars, you’ll see they have like a pressed mark. So that’s been pressed.
“That dent is not supposed to be there. These are supposed to be flat … and that’s not done from tightening any bolts or anything else. The head of the bolt is not that big.”
Kyle Busch put Sunday’s three-wide finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in movie terms. “I hate that we had a Lightning McQueen-style finish there,” Busch said, referencing the animated feature “Cars,” “with so close of three-wide and we were the worst …
Kyle Busch put Sunday’s three-wide finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in movie terms.
“I hate that we had a Lightning McQueen-style finish there,” Busch said, referencing the animated feature “Cars,” “with so close of three-wide and we were the worst of it.”
In the movie, the No. 95 red McQueen car wins a three-wide race. McQueen was the middle car in the battle and through comedy movie hijinks, won the race because he stuck his tongue out to reach the finish line first.
Busch had nothing to deploy from the front of his Richard Childress Racing Cheddar’s Chevrolet, or he might have beat Daniel Suarez and Ryan Blaney. As life imitated art in the Ambetter 400, Busch was the middle car in the photo finish but was 0.007s from victory.
“It’s frustrating; I hate it because I felt like we were one of the top five cars today and had a good shot,” Busch said. “The 12 [Blaney] was fast; deservingly, they were probably one of the fastest cars. With all the carnage, obviously that happened that took out some other guys early.
“But I got a little too far ahead of the 99 [Suarez], and he got a good side draft through the corner. I didn’t think the outside would prevail, but with the run down the frontstretch and the side draft that’s what hurt us. But I was looking at the 12. I swore I was ahead of the 12 at the line, but obviously, my eyes are bad. I need more powerful glasses, I guess.”
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Busch was side-by-side with Suarez at the white flag, with Blaney clear ahead in the race lead. The two were still side-by-side going down the backstretch, and as the field entered Turn 3, Busch made his move. Busch shot to the middle and the right side of Blaney.
But when Busch moved to the middle, Suarez went to the far outside and made it three-wide. It became a three-wide drag race to the finish line.
“I knew you didn’t want to be ahead and I wasn’t ahead, I was second,” Busch said of the last laps. “But I didn’t think the outside would come around the outside like that. We talked about it over the radio. But it did.”
The day didn’t end with a victory, but it was still satisfying for Busch and his team. Busch qualified third and led early in the day, putting on a show by swapping the top spot with Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. in the first stage. Busch led six different times for 28 laps.
It was also an eventful day for Busch. On lap 54, he ran into former teammate Denny Hamlin when the latter thought he was clear and came across Busch’s nose. On lap 134, he was called for speeding on a green flag pit stop and had to rebound from one lap down before finding himself in contention for the victory.
“There, toward the end, you don’t really have that many alliances,” Busch said. “All of my friends kind of disintegrated and went away throughout the day, but Bubba [Wallace] came to the rescue and he was a huge part of our success there off of (Turn) 2 and getting a run, and getting alongside Blaney.
“It was a tight fit, but being able to make that move — if I didn’t make that move, then I push Blaney out too far through (Turns) 3 and 4 and he wins. So, glad to see a Chevy in victory lane.”
Ryan Blaney was inches – 0.003s – from being right at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He thought he had made the right decisions on the last lap Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway and had put himself in the safest spot on the racetrack. But Blaney was scored …
Ryan Blaney was inches — 0.003s — from being right at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
He thought he had made the right decisions on the last lap Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway and had put himself in the safest spot on the racetrack. But Blaney was scored second to Daniel Suarez in a three-wide photo finish in the Ambetter 400 that also included Kyle Busch. At the finish line, Blaney was on the inside lane, Busch was in the middle and Suarez was outside.
“I thought I laid back enough in [Turns] 1 and 2 to kind of not let both lanes get that big of a run,” Blaney said. “I did that the three laps before the end, and I was able to kind of manage it fairly well, but they just got both lanes shoving super hard. I just chose the bottom. It’s the safest place to be.
“What a cool finish. … 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.”
Blaney’s No. 12 BodyArmor Ford Mustang led at the white flag and committed to the bottom lane through Turns 1 and 2. It was where he stayed going down the backstretch and through Turns 3 and 4 as Kyle Busch shot to the middle and Suarez to the outside lane.
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The finish was so close the track’s infield video board and leaderboard initially had Blaney still in first place. NASCAR immediately put the finish under review and had to confirm that Suarez was the winner.
“I’m happy for Daniel,” Blaney said. “That was cool to see. It was fun racing with Kyle [Busch]. 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. I’m proud of the BodyArmor Zero Sugar car. Our Ford Mustang was fast and close.”
One of just a few drivers who was not involved in any of the nine cautions for crashes, Blaney led 31 laps. As he spoke to the media on pit road, he got his first look at the finish on the video board — all smiles at how close it was between them.
“It was a fun night, fun racing,” he said. “I didn’t think they’d get that big of a run on me. I thought I did a good job of getting close off of (Turn) 2 to where I kind of had some of their energy. I guess they just got hooked up super good and got a massive run, and I can’t block both lanes.
“It was fun racing, but just a couple inches short. I’m happy for Daniel, though. That was fun racing him and Kyle. That was fun.”
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 …
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 Suarez 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 Suarez ahead of Blaney by 0.003s at the stripe, with Kyle Busch in third, 0.007s behind the race winner.
As the three drivers sped through the final two corners, Suarez held the outside lane with Blaney on the bottom and Busch in the middle. Suarez 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.
Taking another look at the three-wide finish between Daniel Suárez, Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney at Atlanta:
Suarez, whose No. 99 Trackhouse Race Chevrolet suffered damage to the hood on a lap two 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 Suarez 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 close, man,” said Suarez, still marveling that he was the winner. “It was so 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 two. 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!”
Blaney held the bottom line…but it wasn’t quite enough. Lesley Ann Miller/Motorsport Images
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 No. 12 (Blaney) right there, and the No. 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.”
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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 Suarez, 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 two 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).
Suarez 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 two 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.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube on Sunday, March 3 at 3:30pm ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
