By: Zach Arnold

Just a couple of years ago, NASCAR decided to repave Atlanta Motor Speedway to produce a third superspeedway-style race track to have on the schedule. It took only five races until the new track produced the third-closest finish in NASCAR history.

The race began under unusual circumstances, as a 14-car pileup on Lap 2 was not on anyone’s radar. This wreck had many cars with damage early on, along with a large hole to climb out of for the next 258 laps. Josh Williams was the only driver who was unable to continue. 

With many cars laps down, the field returned to racing on Lap 9. The entire pack of drivers did not seem to be phased by the early crash, as beating, and banging on their doors was the story of stage one. Ryan Blaney took the lead on the restart and would remain upfront until the next caution, brought out by Chris Buescher.

Front Row Motorsport’s teammates, Michael McDowell and Todd Gilliland proved to have the strongest cars early on. McDowell was the pole sitter for the race; this was his first time he began a race from the top spot in his career. Denny Hamlin spun across the infield grass, with eight laps remaining in stage one after making contact with Kyle Busch. A one-lap shootout was set up to end the first segment, which was won by McDowell.

Gilliland and Joey Logano battled into turn one to begin stage two. The first half of stage two was a clean race as many drivers poked around the lead until the green-flag pit stop cycle began; Joey Logano was the first driver to pit. William Byron and McDowell had an issue with pit entrance during this cycle. Both spun after making contact with each other and suffered damage to their cars; however, both were able to continue. Additionally, entering pit road was a story of its own throughout the day. Unlike other tracks, the entrance to the pit road starts on the backstretch. Many drivers had issues getting down to pit road speed and received penalties throughout the cycle.

Stage two ended with a last-lap crash involving Logano, Hamlin, and Chris Buescher. All three cars were able to continue and Austin Cindric took the stage win.

Stage three opened up with a couple of spins. Kaz Grala was the first to spin out just a few laps into the stage and Chase Elliott spun approximately 20 laps later. Both spins brought out cautions and intense restarts. At this point in the race, everything was heating up. It seemed as if each driver was taking space and giving little room to others. This was proven when Austin Cindric decided to take the three leaders four wide with 51 laps remaining.

“That was kind of cool, wasn’t it? I mean, four-wide at Atlanta, that doesn’t really work in the corners, it only works in the straights, but I had enough time to think about if it was a good idea and it was a good idea. I’m sure it looked cool and made for good pictures,” Cindric on his four wide move.

Shortly after the four-wide pass, Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski crashed. Both cars suffered heavy damage and were unable to return on the track. It did not take too long for another wreck to happen – Chase Briscoe, Justin Haley, and Hamlin wrecked, which brought out the red flag. Hamlin and Briscoe’s races were finished due to the crash.

The race resumed with 15 laps to go, however a caution involving Elliott, Josh Berry, and Carson Hocevar brought out the yellow flag which set up a five-lap shootout. Suarez and Blaney filled the front row and took a green flag to begin the final five-lap dash. With relatively clean racing for the next four laps, the white flag was taken by Blaney who was greeted by Suarez and Busch on his outside.

All three cars exited turn four side by side, and the 400-mile race turned into a straightaway length drag race to determine the winner. Suarez beat Blaney and Busch to the finish line by 0.003 seconds, which resulted in the third-closest finish in NASCAR history.

The NASCAR Cup Series head out west to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the third race of the 2024 season. Tune into FS1 at 3:30 pm EST to catch the action.