Joey Logano wins at Atlanta, advances in playoffs

HAMPTON, Ga. —Joey Logano scored the opening race victory of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, helping his team advance one step closer to race for a championship.

Leading nine total laps, Logano took the lead in the Quaker State 400 in NASCAR Overtime, with help from a push from teammate Ryan Blaney to pass race leader Daniel Suarez. It was Logano’s second win of 2024 and the victory locked Logano into the Round of 12.

“Incredible execution from the team,” Logano said. “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.”

March Atlanta winner Daniel Suarez fell one spot short of sweeping at the Georgia speedway, taking home a second-place finish.

“Yeah it was good, definitely happy but not satisfied,” Suarez said. “When you’re in that position, I expect to execute everything perfect but these kind of races, there is a lot of factors.”

Blaney, who overcame damage from a Stage 3 crash with Chris Buescher and gave his Team Penske teammate Logano the race-winning push in overtime, finished third.

“Honestly, I can’t believe we got back up where we did,” Blaney said. “The 12 boys did a really good job fixing it. I’m surprised it didn’t have more damage than what it did… Really proud of the effort.”

Playoff drivers took the first six finishing positions, with Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman and Tyler Reddick occupying positions fourth through sixth respectively.

Kyle Busch was the highest non-playoff driver in seventh. Rounding out the Top-10 — all playoff drivers — were Chase Elliott, William Byron, and Austin Cindric.

Stage 1

Polesitter Michael McDowell led the opening 30 laps before being overtaken by Ryan Blaney for the only lead change of the stage.

In a mostly calm stage, drivers raced single file for much of the opening stage.

With five laps to go in the stage, while running third, Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet got loose in Turn 2 and hit the outside retaining wall, collecting fellow playoff driver Chase Briscoe as he came down the track.

Blaney won the stage under caution. Larson and Briscoe went on to finish 37th and 38th respectively.

Stage 1 Top-10 results (lap 60): Ryan Blaney*, Austin Cindric*, Alex Bowman*, Joey Logano*, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott*, William Byron*, Martin Truex Jr.*, Ty Gibbs*

* – indicates playoff driver

Stage 2

Leading three times for 92 laps, Austin Cindric led the way in Stage 2, taking his third stage win of the year.

The stage featured one caution for debris on lap 113.

Stage 1 Top-10 results (lap 160): Austin Cindric*, Ryan Blaney*, Alex Bowman*, Daniel Suarez*, William Byron*, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott*, Ty Gibbs*, Christopher Bell*

* – indicates playoff driver

Playoff trouble

Four playoff drivers failed to finish the race, all stemming from involvement in a crash.

Larson and Briscoe anchored the field with their lap-55 incident.

Martin Truex Jr. finished 35th after a lap 206 crash collected Truex, Buescher, and damaged Blaney’s No. 12 car. Truex finished 12 laps down, behind the wall, with suspension issues from the wreck.

Harrison Burton did not finish, wrecking on the last lap of the race in an 11-car crash. He finished 31st. Playoff driver Denny Hamlin also collected damage in the crash, finishing 24th.

Outlook
Two races remain in the Round of 12 following Atlanta with the series heading to Watkins Glen (Sept. 15) and Bristol (Sept. 21).

Joey Logano is the only playoff driver locked into the next round of the playoffs.

The playoff grid after Atlanta is as follows:
Logano – Advanced
Blaney +45
Bell +40
Reddick +33
Byron +33
Bowman +27
Elliott +24
Suarez +22
Larson +15
Hamlin +2
Gibbs +1
*CUTLINE*
Keselowski -1
Burton -16
Truex -19
Briscoe -21