Gamesmanship and teamwork was the name of the game at Atlanta.
Thanks to a move by Ross Chastain that took the line away from the race leader, Kurt Busch went to victory lane for the 33rd time in his NASCAR Cup Series career at Atlanta.
Even though Chip Ganassi Racing has been sold and wont be around in 2022, the pair of teammates were equally as responsible in delivering the longtime racing owner his latest victory on the track.
Busch, a noted fan of the movie Talladega Nights, made sure to thank Chastain in following the race.
“Shake and bake,” Busch said on NBCSN. “He did his job as a teammate. He’s gonna get a lot of flack for it, but he did his job in the right moments. That’s a good teammate.”
Busch held the lead coming into the final round of green flag pit stops with just under 50 laps to go, but surrendered it to his brother Kyle Busch after the cycle played out.
It looked like Kyle would cruise away with the victory at one point, but Kurt stayed close and played it cool before taking advantage of Chastain’s move to help him get the lead.
The win extends his streak to eight seasons of having at least one victory each year. It also takes the No. 1 team off of the playoff cutline.
“This has been one of those years where I knew we were going to have our backs against the wall with the cutoff,” Busch said on NBCSN. “I knew we had to put one in victory lane.”
With five races in the regular season remaining and 12 different winners, four drivers currently sit in wild card spots in the playoff standings.
Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick hold 13th and 14th, each of them yet to find victory lane yet this season. Behind them is the pair of Richard Childress Racing teammates in Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick.
Each of Dillon and Reddick hold a nearly 100-point cushion on the cutoff with Chris Buescher being the first driver outside of playoffs at 96 points out. That would imply that it might take critically bad runs for either to fall outside – or the chance of their being a surprise winner.
There’s still time for things to play out with two more road courses coming as well as a regular season finale at Daytona – so only time will tell how that shakes out – but Dillon and Reddick might be sweating as checkered flags fly over the next five races.
Busch though, who was having the time of his life in victory lane, confirmed that he won’t retire and wants to run the Next Gen car in 2022 no matter who that might be.
He’s now safely in the playoffs and he did so by beating his brother.
“Hell yeah,” Busch said. “We beat Kyle. I taught that kid everything he knows, he should be grateful. What a badass, genuine race track.”
The series will return to the race track for one more show in July before taking a break due to the Olympics broadcasting schedule on NBC. The final race before the break will be next Sunday at New Hampshire.
NASCAR Cup Series Results
Atlanta Motor Speedway 2
1. Kurt Busch
2. Kyle Busch
3. Martin Truex Jr.
4. Alex Bowman
5. Ryan Blaney
6. Tyler Reddick
7. Chase Elliott
8. Christopher Bell
9. Matt DiBenedetto
10. Brad Keselowski
11. Kevin Harvick
12. Austin Dillon
13. Denny Hamlin
14. Bubba Wallace
15. Chase Briscoe
16. Chris Buescher
17. Cole Custer
18. Kyle Larson
19. Joey Logano
20. William Byron
21. Ross Chastain
22. Corey LaJoie
23. Aric Almirola
24. Erik Jones
25. Ryan Preece
26. Anthony Alfredo
27. Michael McDowell
28. Ryan Newman
29. Justin Haley
30. BJ McLeod
31. Garrett Smithley
32. Bayley Currey
33. Cody Ware
34. Josh Bilicki
35. Quin Houff
36. Daniel Suarez
37. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
