BY BRANDON REED
Joey Logano started his racing career racing Legends cars on the quarter-mile “Thunder Ring” on the frontstretch at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
But it took him until Sunday to score his first NASCAR Cup Series victory on the 1.5-mile layout.
Logano bypassed fellow Ford pilot Brad Keselowski with half a lap to go in Sunday’s race on the Hampton, Georgia raceway.
“It means a lot to get this one in victory lane. It’s been a lot of years coming,” said Logano. “Atlanta, this means so much to me to win here. So many memories of driving my Legends car right here where we’re standing when I was 9 years old. This is a really special one and a dream come true.”
Logano No. 22 Ford was fastest in Saturday’s qualifying to lead the field from the pole on Sunday. He led 139 laps, the most on the day, winning the first segment and finishing second in the second segment in the process.
But the defending series champion found himself mired in traffic after being shuffled back in the pack during the final segment.
Logano battled back towards the front, and with 40 laps to go, he worked his way back into contention.
Over the closing 13 laps, he raced side-by-side with Keselowski, until Keselowski got the advantage with a push from behind from Tyler Reddick.
But on the final lap, Logano got a run on the high side off turn 2, pulling alongside Keselowski down the backstretch. Logano cleared Keselowski in turn 3, then moved down to block a return run off turn four.
From there, it was all Logano en route to the win.
“We lost our track position there for a minute, but was able to just stay patient and work on it and this amazing fast race car allowed me to really make some great moves on the racetrack and getting the push there on the last lap to get to the outside of Brad,” Logano said. “Just getting to break the plane of his back bumper was gonna be my only chance there and I was able to get him there and get the push from the 20 (Christopher Bell) on the backstretch. Overall, just a really fast Ford Mustang is what it came down to.”
It’s the first series win of Logano’s career at Atlanta, his first of the season and the 32nd of his series career. He said he wanted to stick with his Team Penske teammates of Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric over the course of the final segment of the race.
“There were plenty of times I could have moved up, but I didn’t want to leave my teammates down there,” Logano said. “I wanted them behind me. I knew how fast their cars were. If I could pick one, that’s the one I want, so I was able to try to keep them with me. I thought with two to go the outside lane got three cars, four cars clear and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m gonna make it here,’ but I got a good push – enough to get to the outside of the 6 (Keselowski) and that was the big difference.”
While Keselowski had to settle for second, he was pleased with how he was raced at the end.
“The coolest thing about this is two veterans showed that you can run a race here side-by-side bump drafting and not wreck the field,” Keselowski said. “It can happen if you race respectfully and I thought everybody did a great job. We were right there. I’m proud of my team and the effort, just not much we could do there.”
Christopher Bell had to start the day at the back of the field after his team made unapproved adjustments prior to the race. At the end, he was battling up front for the win before finishing in third.
“Got a good finish out of it and I’m happy with that,” Bell said. “I don’t know, I had the position the 22 (Logano) had and I decided to bail on it and go to the top. To come so close is disappointing, but very happy with a third-place result. We’ll go onto the next one.”
Corey LaJoie finished in fourth, recording another strong run at Atlanta for the underfunded Spire Motorsports team.
“I hope (Logano) gives me a shout-out for pushing him…gave him a good shot there at the end. I was probably fourth or fifth in the top lane there. I had an opportunity to get down and as soon as I didn’t take it, I was like – man that was the race. That was probably with 18 or 20 to go. That’s why these guys make millions of dollars…they’re pretty good and know where to put their car.”
Reddick came home in fifth. Denny Hamlin finished in sixth, while Ryan Blaney, who came back from being two laps down after a pit road speeding penalty, finished in seventh. Erik Jones, Ty Gibbs, and Kyle Busch rounded out the top 10.
With the major changes to the track last year, drivers find it races more like a superspeedway than a typical 1.5-mile layout. That has a tendency to bring a multitude of caution flags with it.
But the race saw only three cautions for on-track incidents, and five overall on the day when the segment breaks are added in. However, two of those involved multiple cars, and took out drivers who were leading at the time.
The first occurred on lap 189, when then leader Kevin Harvick spun out of the lead in turn two. Harvick’s car spun with Ross Chastain’s Chevy tight on his back bumper, but it appeared that the spin was not caused by contact.
While Chastain avoided the melee, several others were gathered up, including defending race winner William Byron, Busch, Chris Buescher, Josh Berry, Harrison Burton, Jones, and Chase Briscoe.
“I think he just caught me so quick right there in the middle of the corner and then he kind of was up on the right rear part of the corner and he came back down and when he came back down it just spun the thing out,” Harvick said. “I don’t think he actually even hit me, but it started chattering the rear tires and then I was just along for the ride.”
The other multi-car crash occurred on lap 209, when then leader Aric Almirola cut a right rear tire coming off turn four, sending his car spinning and gathering up second place Kyle Larson. Also caught up in the crash were Daniel Suarez, Reddick and Justin Haley.
“I’m OK. It knocked the wind out of me, mostly because it caught me by surprise, but I’m OK,” Almirola said. “I blew a tire. I just blew a tire. I have no idea why. We had way less laps on that set of tires than we had earlier, so I don’t know.”
“There was nowhere to go,” Larson said. “Nobody had been having tire issues, so I wasn’t even expecting the No. 10 (Almirola) to have a tire issue in front of me. Even if I did, I didn’t have time to react. It’s a bummer. Just frustrating…I was finally upfront on this style of race track and still end up with a DNF. I don’t know, just frustrating.”
NASCAR Cup Series
Atlanta Motor Speedway – Hampton, GA
Ambetter Health 400 – March 19, 2023
1. (1) Joey Logano, Ford, 260.
2. (4) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 260.
3. (10) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 260.
4. (31) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 260.
5. (16) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 260.
6. (14) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 260.
7. (3) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 260.
8. (28) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 260.
9. (35) Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 260.
10. (17) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 260.
11. (2) Austin Cindric, Ford, 260.
12. (22) Noah Gragson #, Chevrolet, 260.
13. (18) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 260.
14. (15) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 260.
15. (23) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 260.
16. (30) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 260.
17. (27) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, 260.
18. (21) Josh Berry(i), Chevrolet, 260.
19. (29) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 260.
20. (13) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 260.
21. (12) Michael McDowell, Ford, 260.
22. (20) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 260.
23. (26) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 260.
24. (8) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 259.
25. (32) Cody Ware, Ford, 258.
26. (34) J.J. Yeley(i), Ford, 258.
27. (19) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 255.
28. (24) Ryan Preece, Ford, 244.
29. (25) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, DVP, 213.
30. (5) Aric Almirola, Ford, Accident, 208.
31. (9) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, Accident, 208.
32. (11) William Byron, Chevrolet, Accident, 192.
33. (6) Kevin Harvick, Ford, Accident, 190.
34. (33) Harrison Burton, Ford, DVP, 190.
35. (7) Chris Buescher, Ford, Accident, 189.
36. (36) B.J. McLeod, Chevrolet, Accident, 189.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 138.8 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 53 Mins, 5 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.193 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 5 for 34 laps.
Lead Changes: 20 among 13 drivers.
Lap Leaders: J. Logano 1-63;C. Ware 64;K. Busch 65-69;R. Blaney 70-74;K. Busch 75-76;J. Logano 77-131;C. Buescher 132-136;C. Bell 137-142;J. Logano 143-159;A. Cindric 160-164;A. Almirola 165-168;R. Stenhouse Jr. 169-175;D. Hamlin 176-188;K. Harvick 189;R. Chastain 190-194;D. Hamlin 195;A. Almirola 196-208;B. Keselowski 209-226;J. Logano 227-230;B. Keselowski 231-259;J. Logano 260.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Joey Logano 5 times for 140 laps; Brad Keselowski 2 times for 47 laps; Aric Almirola 2 times for 17 laps; Denny Hamlin 2 times for 14 laps; Kyle Busch 2 times for 7 laps; Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 1 time for 7 laps; Christopher Bell 1 time for 6 laps; Ross Chastain 1 time for 5 laps; Ryan Blaney 1 time for 5 laps; Chris Buescher 1 time for 5 laps; Austin Cindric 1 time for 5 laps; Kevin Harvick 1 time for 1 lap; Cody Ware 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 22,2,6,12,11,20,8,17,99,19
Stage #2 Top Ten: 2,22,48,45,24,17,19,11,6,7
Playoff Standings: 1. William Byron – 55 (2 Wins); 2. Joey Logano – 177 (1 Win); 3. Kyle Busch – 153 (1 Win); 4. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. – 124 (1 Win); 5. Christopher Bell – 176; 6. Ross Chastain – 172; 7. Ryan Blaney – 161; 8. Brad Keselowski – 160; 9. Kevin Harvick – 155; 10. Martin Truex, Jr. – 145; 11. Denny Hamlin – 140; 12. Daniel Suarez – 129; 13. Austin Cindric – 126; 14. Chris Buescher – 122; 15. Corey LaJoie – 113; 16. Tyler Reddick – 111.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series