Logano beats Suarez to win NASCAR Cup playoff opener at Atlanta

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.”

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.

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.