NASCAR News: Joey Logano wins first Cup playoff race in Atlanta

Joey Logano used a restart shove from Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney to score the win in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs opener before a sparse crowd at Atlanta Motor Speedway in overtime on Sunday afternoon.

Logano’s victory, his second of 2024, propels him into the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Playoffs. He and fellow playoff contender Daniel Suárez restarted alongside each other in overtime, each getting a push from their teammates with Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain pushing Suárez. Entering Turn 3 on the final lap, an errant shove from Chase Elliott put Chastain into the wall. The field stacked up behind, resulting in a multicar crash that involved playoff drivers Harrison Burton and Denny Hamlin.

Related Article: NASCAR News: McDowell earns Cup race pole at Atlanta

A caution for debris with 10 laps to go set up a restart with just five laps remaining in regulation. With two laps to go, Noah Gragson spun into the inside SAFER barrier after bouncing off playoff contenders Burton and Austin Cindric, sending the race into overtime.

Kyle Larson, who entered as the No. 1 seed in the postseason bracket, crashed out at Lap 56 when his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet snapped loose between Turns 1 and 2. His car veered hard into the outside retaining SAFER barrier and was subsequently struck from behind by Chase Briscoe, another playoff contender. The damage was too severe for either car to continue. Larson was credited with a 37th-place finish and Briscoe 38th, last in the field, with both earning just one point in Sunday’s event.

An incident at Lap 205 drew the fifth caution of the day when Chris Buescher’s No. 17 RFK Racing Ford got loose exiting Turn 2 and clipped defending champion Ryan Blaney in the left side. Blaney slid sideways and doored fellow playoff driver Martin Truex Jr. in the right side. Buescher’s day ended with a 36th-place finish while Blaney and Truex were able to continue despite their damage.

The Round of 16 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs continues on Sept. 15 at Watkins Glen International.

Joey Logano Quotes

What is it about this team, Joey, that you guys can step up and make a difference in the Playoffs?

JOEY LOGANO: Man, incredible execution from the team. 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 Autotrader 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. Pretty good day today. This is Autotrader’s home in Atlanta, Coca-Cola’s home in Atlanta. A lot of people here. It’s important for us to run good at this track.

There’s a lot of memories right here at this start/finish line for me racing Legends cars as a kid. This is really a cool feeling to be out here in a Cup car again.

How much does a win, much less in Atlanta, but in the Playoffs mean to you personally?

JOEY LOGANO: It’s always special. But here, I mean, I lived right there in 805 for about six years. It was a lot of time looking at this racetrack, dreaming about going down into turn one.

I can’t thank the team enough, like I said, everyone at Penske, Roush Yates engines. Hello to my kids and wife at home. Wish they were down here. But it was a special week coming here before we got here. I got to see one of the squadrons here. Got to spend a lot of time with them before we got here. A heck of a way to top it all off.

Paul said he couldn’t take many more of these fuel mileage races. How intense was this race today, much less the end of it?

JOEY LOGANO: I’ll take all of them if it’s working for us. Bring it on (laughter). “We didn’t (advance out of the first round) last year and it hurt a lot, but they just give me really fast cars on superspeedways and we always find ourselves towards the front of them, we just end up wrecking more times than not. So, to be able to finally capitalize on a fast race car and win here in Atlanta again, I lived right over there in condo 805 for a long time, waking up dreaming of just racing on this racetrack, so pulling into Victory Lane here is always a special one. We had such a really good team here today,” commented Logano.

Quaker State 400 Race Results at Atlanta

Pos	No.	Driver	Car	Behind	Laps
1	22	Joey Logano (P)		—	266
2	99	Daniel Suarez (P)		0.212	266
3	12	Ryan Blaney (P)		0.213	266
4	20	Christopher Bell (P)		0.368	266
5	48	Alex Bowman (P)		0.406	266
6	45	Tyler Reddick (P)		0.446	266
7	8	Kyle Busch		0.501	266
8	9	Chase Elliott (P)		0.589	266
9	24	William Byron (P)		0.665	266
10	2	Austin Cindric (P)		0.826	266
11	31	Daniel Hemric		0.923	266
12	51	Justin Haley		1.146	266
13	1	Ross Chastain		1.286	266
14	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		1.287	266
15	7	Corey LaJoie		1.579	266
16	77	Carson Hocevar #		1.706	266
17	54	Ty Gibbs (P)		1.928	266
18	41	Ryan Preece		1.929	266
19	6	Brad Keselowski (P)		2.876	266
20	3	Austin Dillon		3.602	266
21	71	Zane Smith #		3.603	266
22	34	Michael McDowell		4.062	266
23	44	* JJ Yeley(i)		4.063	266
24	11	Denny Hamlin (P)		11.809	266
25	78	* BJ McLeod(i)		11.896	266
26	43	Erik Jones		17.459	266
27	38	Todd Gilliland		19.301	266
28	4	Josh Berry #		20.311	266
29	23	Bubba Wallace		36.036	266
30	15	Cody Ware		38.337	266
31	21	Harrison Burton (P)		0.659	265
32	16	Shane Van Gisbergen(i)		-2	264
33	42	John Hunter Nemechek		-4	262
34	10	Noah Gragson		-8	258
35	19	Martin Truex Jr. (P)		-12	254
36	17	Chris Buescher		-61	205
37	5	Kyle Larson (P)		-211	55
38	14	Chase Briscoe (P)		-211	55

# DENOTES ROOKIE
(i) NOT ELIGIBLE FOR POINTS
(*) REQUIRED TO QUALIFY ON TIME