Joey Logano Took His First Atlanta Win in NASCAR After Final Lap Overtake

Pit lane violations by Ryan Blaney and Chris Buescher created chaos in the race's final stage, which saw Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola crashing while leading. The resulting dash for the win was fought between Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, with Keselowski leading for most of the last 51 laps. However, Logano overtook his former Team Penske teammate on the final lap and held off the rest of the field to take his 32nd NASCAR Cup Series victory.

Logano trailed Keselowski as they entered Turn 1 on the final lap, but with Christopher Bell lagging too far behind on the high line, Logano gained enough momentum low and surged to the top, using the banking to push him to the front. He crossed the finish line ahead of Keselowski by .193 seconds to score his second career win at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Keselowski had led for 47 laps, but had to settle for second place in his No. 6 Ford, almost ending his 66-race winless drought and the 419-race winless streak of the No. 6 Ford. While Ford had dominated the race, with the top eight starting spots, Chevrolet had won five of the six races on drafting tracks in the Next Gen era, including both at Atlanta last year.

In terms of manufacturer performance, Ford dominated the race, leading 221 of the 260 laps and taking the top two spots and three of the top seven. This was the same number of laps led by Ford in the first four weeks of the season. Toyota surprised everyone by having three cars in the top six, despite struggling during qualifying on Saturday. However, Toyota has not won in Georgia since 2014 and has a poor track record at Talladega and Daytona. Chevrolet only had three cars in the top 11, struggling to keep up with the dominant Ford cars.

On Saturday, the Stewart-Haas Racing team was feeling optimistic as three of their four cars secured top eight starting positions. However, their fortunes took a sharp turn for the worse on Sunday as they struggled from the outset of the fifth race of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season and went backward.  In Stage 2, they attempted to progress by rolling the dice and gambling with fuel-only stops, but it proved unsuccessful. Briscoe crashed into the wall and broke a toe link, Harvick lost control while leading in Turn 2 on Lap 189, and Preece had a rough day with two pit road penalties and power issues throughout.

His disappointing start to the 2023 season continued with a 36th-place finish, following finishes of 33rd, 23rd, 12th, and 28th. William Byron, the winner of the last two weeks, was expected to continue his dominance and win his third race in a row at Atlanta. However, he was caught up in the Lap 189 crash and finished 32nd instead. Hendrick Motorsports driver Josh Berry also suffered damage in the accident and finished in 18th place.

It was not a good day for the Hendrick Motorsports organization in general. Kyle Larson was also involved in the Lap 208 crash with Almirola, which occurred when Almirola's tire blew out while leading in Turn 4. Larson had no place to go and finished in 31st place. Despite having just one top 5 finish in 37 starts on superspeedways, Larson has never won a race on one.

Additionally, Alex Bowman failed to score a top-ten finish for the first time this season and finished in 14th place. Hendrick Motorsports had previously won three straight races at Atlanta prior to their dry spell in 2017. While they swept both races in Atlanta last year after it was reconfigured, they were unable to return to victory lane on Sunday.

When it comes to Atlanta, some might see Daytona and Talladega as comparable tracks to use as reference points. Theoretically, they are similar in terms of the package, but Atlanta is a much tougher challenge than its superspeedway counterparts. The shorter length of the track, just a mile shorter than Daytona and Talladega, means there's hardly any room to breathe. You're constantly in traffic, which causes chaos. Unlike Daytona and Talladega, where drivers have two-three, or sometimes four, lanes to work with, there are only two lanes max in Atlanta, and not much time to regroup. This often leads to chaos when drivers try to pass while running the double file.

Despite the challenging conditions, the finish in Atlanta was fantastic, with 20 lead changes among 13 drivers and just five cautions for 34 laps. The race lasted for two hours, 56 minutes, and 34 seconds. However, the new pit road commitment line proved to be a significant factor on Sunday, as drivers Ryan Preece and Austin Dillon missed the commitment line. At the same time, Ryan Blaney and Chris Buescher were caught speeding. This proved to be costly for all four drivers, highlighting the importance of avoiding mistakes on this part of the track.

In response, NASCAR has moved the pit road commitment line to the third turn this week after drivers expressed concerns about the potential danger of diving to the pit road at the fourth turn exit. At Talladega and Daytona, drivers have plenty of room between Turn 4 and the tri-oval to slow down and get to pit road, which is not the case in Atlanta. Interestingly, there were no green flag pit stops in either of last season's Atlanta races, making the new pit road commitment line a focal point this year. Without practice this weekend, drivers had to learn the new layout on the fly.