Race Results

NASCAR Cup Series

Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500

Atlanta Motor Speedway

March 21st, 2021

Race #6 of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Season

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Laps Scheduled: 325
Miles Raced : 500.5
Time of Race : 03 Hours 27 minutes 41 seconds
Average Speed: 144.595 mph
Margin of Victory : 02.083 seconds
Cautions: 5
Caution Laps: 25
Lead Changes: 11
Cars in Race : 39
Finished On Lead Lap: 14 (36%)

Ryan Blaney celebrates after winning the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 — Hampton, Georgia - March 21st, 2021: Ryan Blaney, driver of the #12 BodyArmor Ford, celebrates after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 21, 2021 in Hampton, Georgia. Photo by Kevin C Cox | Getty Images

FIN	ST	Car #	Driver	Make	TOT PTS	F PTS	B PTS	PO PTS	Laps	Led	x Led	S1	S2	STUS
1	10	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	57	40	17	5	325	25	3	3	2	Running
2	6	5	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	55	35	20	2	325	269	5	1	1	Running
3	14	48	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	47	34	13	0	325	0	0	6	3	Running
4	1	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	41	33	8	0	325	27	1	5	9	Running
5	19	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	48	32	16	0	325	0	0	2	4	Running
6	13	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	35	31	4	0	325	0	0	0	7	Running
7	17	17	Chris Buescher	Ford	35	30	5	0	325	0	0	9	8	Running
8	9	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	36	29	7	0	325	2	1	10	5	Running
9	2	19	Martin Truex Jr	Toyota	32	28	4	0	325	0	0	7	0	Running
10	7	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	27	27	0	0	325	0	0	0	0	Running
11	20	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	31	26	5	0	325	0	0	0	6	Running
12	12	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Chevrolet	25	25	0	0	325	0	0	0	0	Running
13	28	6	Ryan Newman	Ford	24	24	0	0	325	0	0	0	0	Running
14	21	42	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	23	23	0	0	325	0	0	0	0	Running
15	3	22	Joey Logano	Ford	22	22	0	0	324	0	0	0	0	Running
16	15	23	Bubba Wallace	Toyota	21	21	0	0	324	0	0	0	0	Running
17	25	99	Daniel Suarez	Chevrolet	21	20	1	0	324	1	1	0	10	Running
18	27	41	Cole Custer	Ford	19	19	0	0	324	0	0	0	0	Running
19	18	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	18	18	0	0	324	0	0	0	0	Running
20	16	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	17	17	0	0	324	0	0	0	0	Running
21	8	20	Christopher Bell	Toyota	16	16	0	0	323	0	0	0	0	Running
22	39	33	Austin Cindric	Ford	0	0	0	0	323	0	0	0	0	Running
23	24	14	Chase Briscoe	Ford	14	14	0	0	323	0	0	0	0	Running
24	22	43	Erik Jones	Chevrolet	13	13	0	0	323	0	0	0	0	Running
25	23	37	Ryan Preece	Chevrolet	12	12	0	0	323	0	0	0	0	Running
26	29	8	Tyler Reddick	Chevrolet	11	11	0	0	323	0	0	0	0	Running
27	32	38	Anthony Alfredo	Ford	10	10	0	0	322	0	0	0	0	Running
28	4	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	9	9	0	0	321	0	0	0	0	Running
29	30	7	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	8	8	0	0	319	0	0	0	0	Running
30	26	77	Justin Haley	Chevrolet	0	0	0	0	319	0	0	0	0	Running
31	33	51	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	0	0	0	0	316	0	0	0	0	Running
32	34	15	James Davison	Chevrolet	5	5	0	0	316	0	0	0	0	Running
33	35	0	Quin Houff	Chevrolet	4	4	0	0	314	0	0	0	0	Running
34	31	78	BJ McLeod	Ford	0	0	0	0	313	0	0	0	0	Running
35	36	53	Joey Gase	Chevrolet	2	2	0	0	308	0	0	0	0	Running
36	38	66	Timmy Hill	Toyota	0	0	0	0	305	0	0	0	0	Running
37	37	52	Josh Bilicki	Ford	1	1	0	0	285	0	0	0	0	Running
38	5	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	4	1	3	0	220	0	0	8	0	Engine
39	11	1	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	8	1	7	0	113	1	1	4	0	Accident

Race Infractions

Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway

Driver	Infraction	Penalty	Lap	Lap Assessed	Flag
Timmy Hill	Pre-Race to the Rear Three Inspection Failures	Pass Thru	0	1	White
Chase Elliott	Pre-Race to the Rear Two Inspection Failures	Tail End	0	0	White
Quin Houff	Pre-Race to the Rear Unapproved Adjustments	Tail End	0	0	White
Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Speeding on pit road	Tail End	27	30	Yellow
Corey Lajoie	Speeding on pit road	Tail End	27	30	Yellow
Quin Houff	Pitting before pit road is open	Tail End	27	30	Yellow
Kevin Harvick	Pitting before pit road is open	Tail End	29	30	Yellow
Ross Chastain	Tire violation Uncontrolled Tire	Tail End	109	112	Yellow
Kurt Busch	Pitting before pit road is open Garage	Tail End	113	0	Yellow
Timmy Hill	Pitting before pit road is open	Tail End	116	118	Yellow
Josh Bilicki	Pitting before pit road is open	Tail End	116	118	Yellow
Joey Gase	Crewmember(s) over the wall too soon	Pass Thru	155	161	Green
Brad Keselowski	Pitting before pit road is open	Tail End	213	217	Yellow
Chase Elliott	Pitting before pit road is open Garage	Tail End	220	0	Yellow
Kyle Busch	Speeding on pit road	Tail End	221	224	Yellow
Josh Bilicki	Speeding on pit road	Pass Thru	235	238	Green
Daniel Suarez	Speeding on pit road	Pass Thru	267	269	Green
Quin Houff	Speeding on pit road	Pass Thru	269	271	Green

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Race Fast Facts

Atlanta Motor Speedway
63rd Annual Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500
Race Winner: Ryan Blaney
Age: 27
Team : No. 12 - BodyArmor Ford
Owner: Roger Penske
Crew Chief: Todd Gordon
Ryan Blaney won the 63rd Annual Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, his fifth victory in 204 Cup Series races.
This is his first victory and third top-10 finish in 2021.
This is his first victory and second top-10 finish in six races at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Kyle Larson (second) posted his fourth top-10 finish in seven races at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It is his fifth top-10 finish in 2021.
Alex Bowman (third) posted his first top-10 finish in six races at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Chase Briscoe (23rd) was the highest finishing rookie.

Race Recap

Ryan Blaney wins at Atlanta, spoils Kyle Larson's dominant run

March 21st, 2021

By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service

You can call Ryan Blaney "The Spoiler."

With a pass for the lead with eight laps left in Sunday's Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Blaney took the air out of an otherwise dominating performance by Kyle Larson, who had to settle for second place after winning the first two stages and leading 269 of 325 laps.

"Gosh, we had a great long-run car all day," Blaney said after climbing from his No. 12 Team Penske Ford. "It took us a little bit to get going. I was pretty free all day, so we made a really good change to tighten me up where I needed it.

"It looked like Kyle was getting loose, and I'm happy it worked into our favor that there were a couple of long runs at the end (that) let us kind of get there, and he got slowed up behind some lapped traffic… It's nice to close out a race like that—it was awesome."

Blaney's first victory at Atlanta and the fifth of his career extended the streak of different NASCAR Cup Series winners this season to six. The victory was the fifth straight at the 1.54-mile track for Ford drivers.

For the fourth time in his career, Larson swept the first two stages of a race and failed to win the event.

"I think he (Blaney) just got a lot better that last stage, and that changed up my flow of the race a little bit," said Larson, who won each of the first two stages by more than six seconds. "I could get out to such big leads, and I could take care of my stuff and run the bottom where it was maybe slower, but I could take care of my tires.

"He was fast there (in the final run), and I just wanted to maintain that gap that I had, so I had to run in the faster part of the race track and just used my stuff up. He was a lot better than me there late in the run. I hate to lead a lot of laps and lose, but we had a really good car that we brought to the track. Our (No. 5) Hendrick Cars Chevy was stupid-fast there for a long time. I don't know if we got that much worse, or if he got way better."

Alex Bowman ran third, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher, William Byron, Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick completed the top 10.

The first two stages featured only one caution for an on-track incident. On a restart on Lap 113, after the break at the end of Stage 1, Kyle Busch spun his tires at the front of the pack in the outside lane, causing Chase Elliott and Kurt Busch to check up behind him.

Kurt Busch steered down to the middle lane, but off-center contact from Hamlin's Toyota sent the No. 1 Chevrolet into the Turn 1 wall and out of the race.

"Yeah, I think the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) was the outside-lead car," said Kurt Busch, who ran near the front of the field throughout the first stage. The No. 9 (Elliott) kind of checked-up, too. I checked up… It was just the accordion effect and then I jumped to the middle. I'm like ‘I'm here'; I positioned myself. It wasn't like I rearranged my lanes and made another block.

"He (Hamlin) didn't do anything vicious or malicious there. It's a 500-miler, and these are the days that it hurts the worst. This absolutely hurts the worst because we had a top-five, winning Monster Energy Chevy."

Elliott, the reigning series champion, sustained damage on that same restart, but his troubles didn't become terminal until the third stage, when his engine blew to cause the fifth caution of the afternoon.

"Yeah, obviously we broke a motor there later on," Elliott said. "We got some damage there on that restart. Kyle (Busch) kind of spun his tires and then I was pushing him, and Kurt (Busch) was pushing me. We all just really jammed together hard and ended up hurting the nose some. I don't know if that had something to do with breaking the engine or not."

Early tire troubles ruined the afternoon for defending race winner Harvick, who pitted with a flat left rear as the rest of the field restarted on Lap 32 after a competition caution. Larson lapped Harvick later in the first stage, and the 2014 series champion didn't get the lap back until he took a wave-around under the fifth caution, for Elliott's blown engine.

Harvick battled back to finish 10th but could advance no further.