Race report
NASCAR Cup Atlanta II
Logano beats Suarez to win NASCAR Cup playoff opener at Atlanta
Joey Logano claimed victory in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway, locking himself into the Round of 12.
Nick DeGroot
Edited: Sep 9, 2024, 5:42 AM
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The race at Atlanta Motor Speedway ended in a two-lap dash in overtime with Ryan Blaney pushing his Penske teammate Joey Logano, and Ross Chastain pushing Trackhouse teammate Daniel Suarez. The Trackhouse drivers quickly became disconnected, clearing the way for Logano to win for the 34th time in his career and his second of the year.
"Incredible execution from the team," said Logano, who now has two Cup wins at Atlanta. "When it's playoff time, it's our time. As I said, we got to always get the level up when it comes playoff time. They gave me a great Mustang. She was fast all day. Got stuck in the back a little bit. It was hard to get track position back. Had a good restart and got towards the front. Had my teammate Blaney behind me. That really helped out in the last lap to be able to make sure a Penske car won, ultimately move on to the next round. Good day for all the Penske cars. Got a lot of stage points as well."
Logano spent six years living in a condo that overlooks the track, saying of that experience: "Spent a lot of time looking at this race track, dreaming about going down into Turn 1."
Watch: Joey Logano: ‘When it’s playoff time, it’s our time’ after locking into the Round of 12
Suarez, who won at Atlanta earlier this year, just missed out on the sweep. "I was pretty confident that the top was going to be better," he said post-race. "We got a great launch, but we just got disconnected too early, and that obviously hurt us ... It's a little painful. I feel like we were in position. Sometimes, it's very difficult to predict who is going to get the best push and for how long they're gonna get it. But we're in contention."
Early in the race, title favorite and top seed Kyle Larson crashed after losing control just a few laps shy of the Stage 1 finish. Chase Briscoe was also collected, ending his race. Beyond that, the opening two stages were fairly clean with Ryan Blaney winning Stage 1 and Austin Cindric winning Stage 2.
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Fuel appeared to be tight for the leaders near the end of the race, but a caution with 56 laps to go provided a much-needed assist. Chris Buescher shot up the track, hitting Ryan Blaney. Blaney spun and slid down the track, colliding with Martin Truex Jr. -- two playoff drivers with significant damage.
Ty Gibbs got control of the race, hoping to secure his first career Cup win, but a caution for debris -- a Walmart banner on the front stretch -- forced another yellow with ten laps remaining. The closing laps evolved into a head-to-head fight between Penske and Trackhouse, but a wreck by Noah Gragson forced the race into overtime.
Logano chose the bottom and Suarez the top. They were even for a bit, but the Trackhouse drivers became disconnected in Turn 3. On the final lap, there was little Suarez could do against the Penske duo as Chastain got walled by Chase Elliott, igniting a race-ending crash.
Logano captured the checkered flag and due to the timing of the yellow, Suarez was second and Blaney third. Christopher Bell was fourth, Alex Bowman fifth. Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, William Byron, and Austin Cindric rounded out the top ten.
Leaving Atlanta, the following drivers are below the cut-line: Brad Keselowski (-1pt); Harrison Burton (-16pts); Martin Truex Jr. (-19pts); Chase Briscoe (-21pts). Ty Gibbs at +1 and Denny Hamlin at +2 are just above.
Cla Driver # Manufacturer Laps Time Interval Pits Points 1 J. LoganoTeam Penske 22 Ford 266
3:06'11.598
6 47 2 D. SuarezTrackHouse Racing 99 Chevrolet 266
+0.212
3:06'11.810
0.212 8 42 3 R. BlaneyTeam Penske 12 Ford 266
+0.213
3:06'11.811
0.001 9 53 4 C. BellJoe Gibbs Racing 20 Toyota 266
+0.368
3:06'11.966
0.155 10 34 5 A. BowmanHendrick Motorsports 48 Chevrolet 266
+0.406
3:06'12.004
0.038 7 48 6 T. Reddick23XI Racing 45 Toyota 266
+0.446
3:06'12.044
0.040 8 31 7 K. BuschRichard Childress Racing 8 Chevrolet 266
+0.501
3:06'12.099
0.055 7 30 8 C. ElliottHendrick Motorsports 9 Chevrolet 266
+0.589
3:06'12.187
0.088 7 36 9 W. ByronHendrick Motorsports 24 Chevrolet 266
+0.665
3:06'12.263
0.076 7 37 10 A. CindricTeam Penske 2 Ford 266
+0.826
3:06'12.424
0.161 7 46 11 D. HemricKaulig Racing 31 Chevrolet 266
+0.923
3:06'12.521
0.097 8 26 12 J. HaleyRick Ware Racing 51 Ford 266
+1.146
3:06'12.744
0.223 7 25 13 R. ChastainTrackHouse Racing 1 Chevrolet 266
+1.286
3:06'12.884
0.140 7 33 14 R. Stenhouse JrJTG Daugherty Racing 47 Chevrolet 266
+1.287
3:06'12.885
0.001 11 34 15 C. LajoieSpire Motorsports 7 Chevrolet 266
+1.579
3:06'13.177
0.292 8 22 16
C. HocevarSpire Motorsports
77 Chevrolet 266
+1.706
3:06'13.304
0.127 12 21 17
T. GibbsJoe Gibbs Racing
54 Toyota 266
+1.928
3:06'13.526
0.222 7 23 18 R. PreeceStewart-Haas Racing 41 Ford 266
+1.929
3:06'13.527
0.001 9 19 19 B. KeselowskiRFK Racing 6 Ford 266
+2.876
3:06'14.474
0.947 10 18 20 A. DillonRichard Childress Racing 3 Chevrolet 266
+3.602
3:06'15.200
0.726 10 17 21
Z. SmithSpire Motorsports
71 Chevrolet 266
+3.603
3:06'15.201
0.001 9 16 22 M. McDowellFront Row Motorsports 34 Ford 266
+4.062
3:06'15.660
0.459 8 15 23 J. YeleyNY Racing Team 44 Chevrolet 266
+4.063
3:06'15.661
0.001 10 24 D. HamlinJoe Gibbs Racing 11 Toyota 266
+11.809
3:06'23.407
7.746 8 13 25 B. McLeodLive Fast Motorsports 78 Chevrolet 266
+11.896
3:06'23.494
0.087 11 26 E. JonesLegacy Motor Club 43 Toyota 266
+17.459
3:06'29.057
5.563 13 11 27 T. GillilandFront Row Motorsports 38 Ford 266
+19.301
3:06'30.899
1.842 11 10 28 J. BerryStewart-Haas Racing 4 Ford 266
+20.311
3:06'31.909
1.010 9 9 29 B. Wallace23XI Racing 23 Toyota 266
+36.036
3:06'47.634
15.725 8 8 30 C. WareRick Ware Racing 15 Ford 266
+38.337
3:06'49.935
2.301 8 7 31 H. BurtonWood Brothers Racing 21 Ford 265
+1 Lap
3:05'41.810
1 Lap 7 6 32 S. van GisbergenKaulig Racing 16 Chevrolet 264
+2 Laps
3:06'27.346
1 Lap 11 33 J. NemechekLegacy Motor Club 42 Toyota 262
+4 Laps
3:06'26.151
2 Laps 10 4 34 N. GragsonStewart-Haas Racing 10 Ford 258
+8 Laps
2:56'34.767
4 Laps 8 3 35 M. Truex JrJoe Gibbs Racing 19 Toyota 254
+12 Laps
3:05'12.597
4 Laps 16 4 36 C. BuescherRFK Racing 17 Ford 205
+61 Laps
2:17'06.205
49 Laps 8 1 37 K. LarsonHendrick Motorsports 5 Chevrolet 55
+211 Laps
28'18.741
150 Laps 2 1 38 C. BriscoeStewart-Haas Racing 14 Ford 55
+211 Laps
28'21.249
2.508 2 1
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