By Noah Nelson
The box score will say that Joey Logano dominated the Ambetter Health 400 at
Atlanta Motor Speedway, but he needed all 400 miles to score the victory today.
Logano, the pole sitter, won stage one and narrowly lost stage two to Team Penske
teammate Austin Cindric, leading 140 total laps on the day. Over the course of the final
stint, Logano had a thrilling duel with former teammate and Superspeedway rival Brad
Keselowski, as Logano and his teammates grinded it out on the bottom while the Toyota
trio of Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, and Denny Hamlin pushed Keselowski in the top
lane.
With a few laps to go, few would’ve thought Logano would win, as the bottom
lane had faded back, but when Christopher Bell made his move on Keselowski, it
shuffled up the running order and brought Logano back into it. Bell gave Logano a push
on the backstretch that helped secure Logano’s first Atlanta win, and the 32nd of his
career.
Logano’s win at Atlanta was the fulfillment of a childhood dream. The
Connecticut native moved to Atlanta as a child, and cut his teeth on the quarter-mile
track in the infield, racing Legends cars, dreaming of someday winning a race on the
1.5-mile oval.
“This is so special to win at Atlanta for me,” Logano said. “I have so many memories of me and
my dad racing Legends cars here. This is full circle for me. This thing was an animal —
very, very fast.”
The race saw two accidents that changed the complexion of the event. With 71 to
go, Kevin Harvick got loose in front of Ross Chastain while leading in turns one and two,
losing control and collecting Chris Buescher and William Byron, among others.
“It’s just part of racing. That’s the way it goes, not really in our control,” Byron
said.
Then with 52 laps remaining, Aric Almirola blew a right rear tire while leading,
spinning into Kyle Larson, ending both of their days early.
In a season that has been dominated by Chevrolet to start, Ford was the
manufacturer to beat this weekend. A Ford driver led all but 39 of the race’s 260 laps,
as well as having the top eight cars in qualifying earlier in the weekend.
NASCAR’s top division heads to Austin, Texas next weekend, racing at the
Circuit of the Americas, where Ross Chastain looks to repeat the site of his first career
win a season ago, which kickstarted his championship pursuit.
Results from the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway:
1. (22) Joey Logano (Stage One Winner)
2. (6) Brad Keselowski
3. (20) Christopher Bell
4. (7) Corey LaJoie
5. (45) Tyler Reddick
6. (11) Denny Hamlin
7. (12) Ryan Blaney
8. (43) Erik Jones
9. (54) Ty Gibbs
10. (8) Kyle Busch
11. (2) Austin Cindric (Stage Two Winner)
12. (42) Noah Gragson
13. (1) Ross Chastain
14. (48) Alex Bowman
15. (38) Todd Gilliland
16. (16) A.J. Allmendinger
17. (47) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
18. (9) Josh Berry
19. (19) Martin Truex Jr.
20. (3) Austin Dillon
21. (34) Michael McDowell
22. (31) Justin Haley
23. (77) Ty Dillon
24. (14) Chase Briscoe (-1 Lap)
25. (51) Cody Ware (-2 Laps)
26. (15) J.J. Yeley (-2 Laps)
27. (23) Bubba Wallace (-5 Laps)
28. (41) Ryan Preece (-16 Laps)
29. (99) Daniel Suarez (Out, Accident)
30. (10) Aric Almirola (Out, Accident)
31. (5) Kyle Larson (Out, Accident)
32. (24) William Byron (Out, Accident)
33. (4) Kevin Harvick (Out, Accident)
34. (21) Harrison Burton (Out, Accident)
35. (17) Chris Buescher (Out, Accident)
36. (78) B.J. McLeod (Out, Accident)
