Ryan Blaney passes Kyle Larson late, wins Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500

Kyle Larson was poised to win his second NASCAR Cup Series race of the season when he won two stages and led 269 laps in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. However, he did not lead the final eight as Ryan Blaney chased down the dominant #5 car and took the spot late to win.

Denny Hamlin started on the pole ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate and Phoenix winner Martin Truex Jr. Chase Elliott and Timmy Hill failed pre-race inspection multiple times (twice for Elliott, thrice for Hill) and were sent to the rear, as was Quin Houff for unapproved adjustments; Hill also lost his car chief Sebastian Laforge and had to serve a pass-through penalty. On Twitter, Laforge explained the #66 car encountered inspection troubles involving the rear toe and camber.

Stage #1

As Hamlin led every lap to the competition caution on lap 25, Hill served his penalty and Josh Bilicki‘s car lost power, forcing him to the garage before returning multiple laps down. Elliott reached fifteenth by the competition yellow.

Larson was the first off pit road to assume the lead for the restart on lap 31. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Corey LaJoie suffered speeding penalties on their stops while Kevin Harvick had to pit again for a flat left-rear tyre.

When the lap counter reached the sixties, green-flag stops commenced. Kurt Busch and William Byron briefly inherited the lead before they pitted, which cycled the spot back to Larson. The Las Vegas race winner led for the remainder of the segment to take the green-checkered flag. Kyle Busch, Blaney, Kurt Busch, Hamlin, Alex Bowman, Truex, Elliott, Chris Buescher, and Byron also scored stage points.

Stage #2

Ross Chastain received an uncontrolled tyre penalty between stages.

The race resumed on lap 113 as Larson and the inside line took off, while Kyle Busch spun his tyres on the outside and stacked up the lane. Brother Kurt was hit from behind by Hamlin and went into the turn one wall, ending his day and producing a caution.

Another restart took place on lap 119, with a repeat of the previous green flag occurring as Larson drove away while Byron suffered a tyre spin while leading his lane. Blaney led the lap before Larson retook it.

Lap 160 saw the next pit cycle under green. Daniel Suárez, working with interim crew chief Jose Blasco-Figueroa (the first Mexican driver/crew chief duo since brothers Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez in 1959), momentarily held the lead before he hit pit road. Like in Stage #1, the stops ended with Larson taking the lead and pulling away for the stage victory.

Blaney, Kyle Busch, Byron, Matt DiBenedetto, Austin Dillon, Buescher, Hamlin, and Suárez rounded out the top ten. Suárez’s stage points were his first of the season and the first in Trackhouse Racing Team history.

Stage #3

Hendrick Motorsports team-mates Larson and Byron led the field to the final stage’s start on lap 218. As with the previous segment, green-flag racing barely lasted a lap as Hendrick driver Elliott’s engine expired to produce a caution.

Blaney beat Larson off pit road, while Busch received a speeding penalty. Larson chased down Blaney and passed him for the spot on lap 237.

The final stops under green commenced on lap 265. Suárez was penalised for speeding on pit road, while Anthony Alfredo spun and nearly sandwiched Aric Almirola‘s crewmen between the cars.

Blaney attempted to give chase to Larson, whose lead was 2.3 seconds with twenty laps to go. Five laps later, the margin was down to below a second, and was further reduced to half a second by the ten-to-go mark. Further complicating matters for Larson was lapped traffic, which included Blaney’s Team Penske colleague Joey Logano.

The lead change took place on the frontstretch with eight laps remaining and Blaney began building a gap that reached over a second after four laps. Blaney pulled away to win his first win of the year, fifth of his career, and first on a 1.5-mile track.

“We had a great long-run car all day,” Blaney told Fox. “It took us a little bit to get going and I was pretty free all day. We made a really good change to tighten me up where I needed it and it looked like Kyle was getting loose. I’m happy it worked in our favour that there was a couple long runs at the end that let us kind of get there. He got slowed up behind some lapped traffic.”

Larson had to settle for second.

“I think (Blaney) just got a lot better there that last stage and that kind of changed up my flow of the race a little bit,” he commented. “I could get out to such a big lead and then I could take care of my stuff and run the bottom where he was maybe slower but I could take care of my tyres. He was fast there, and I just wanted to maintain that gap that I had, so I had to run on the faster part of the race track and just use my stuff up. He was just a lot better than me late in the run.”

Bowman scored his first top five of the season in third followed by JGR’s Hamlin and Busch. Austin Dillon finished sixth for his first Cup top ten at Atlanta, and behind him was Chris Buescher with his first top ten of the year. Blaney’s Penske team-mate Austin Cindric finished twenty-second in his second career Cup start.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	10	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	325	Running
2	6	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	325	Running
3	14	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	325	Running
4	1	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	325	Running
5	19	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	325	Running
6	13	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	325	Running
7	17	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	325	Running
8	9	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	325	Running
9	2	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	325	Running
10	7	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	325	Running
11	20	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	325	Running
12	12	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	325	Running
13	28	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	325	Running
14	21	42	Ross Chastain	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	325	Running
15	3	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	324	Running
16	15	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	324	Running
17	25	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	324	Running
18	27	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	324	Running
19	18	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	324	Running
20	16	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	324	Running
21	8	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	323	Running
22	39	33	Austin Cindric*	Team Penske	Ford	323	Running
23	24	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	323	Running
24	22	43	Erik Jones	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	323	Running
25	23	37	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	323	Running
26	29	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	323	Running
27	32	38	Anthony Alfredo	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	322	Running
28	4	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	321	Running
29	30	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	319	Running
30	26	77	Justin Haley*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	319	Running
31	33	51	Cody Ware*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	316	Running
32	34	15	James Davison	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	316	Running
33	35	00	Quin Houff	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	314	Running
34	31	78	B.J. McLeod*	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	313	Running
35	36	53	Joey Gase	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	308	Running
36	38	66	Timmy Hill*	MBM Motorsports	Ford	305	Running
37	37	52	Josh Bilicki	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	285	Running
38	5	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	220	Engine
39	11	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	113	Accident

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