HAMPTON, Ga. — Kyle Larson hardly raced his competition at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He just passed them. Larson led 269 laps of the 325-lap race in NASCAR’s Cup race in Hampton, Ga. and was on the precipice of winning his second race of the season.
Until Ryan Blaney took the lead.
BLANEY STEALS THE WIN
Ryan Blaney led just 25 laps Sunday and chased Larson down from second place, capitalizing on a moment when Larson slowed behind the lapped car of Joey Logano. Blaney pushed forward for a few more laps, then made his pass with less than 10 laps remaining to win his fifth race in NASCAR’s top series.
“Toward the end of those longer runs, we really started coming forward,” Blaney said after the race. “And we made a big step on that in the last stage.”
Blaney said the team made late-race adjustments to make his No. 12 Ford tighter.
“I was pretty free all day, and we were able to get tighter and keep the rear tires under it,” he said. “And it looked like (Larson) was getting pretty free so just able to drive up and get a good run off (Turns) 3 and 4 and get by and pull him.”
Larson finished in second. Alex Bowman finished in third.
Blaney became the sixth different winner to start the 2021 season. When asked about the fact that he was the sixth new face in Victory Lane this year he replied, “Happy I’m one of them!”
“It just shows that a lot of great teams are out there and you have to be on top of your game,” Blaney said, noting that his Penske team showed its speed Sunday.
KYLE LARSON STARTS THE SEASON AS A FORCE
The No. 5 Chevrolet kept half of the cars at least one lap down for most of the race, and at one point during the second stage put a full 10 seconds between his car and then-second place runner Alex Bowman.
But Ryan Blaney proved to be Larson’s biggest challenger late in the race, surging to the lead after a fast pit stop in the final stage sent him to the front. By Lap 237, however, Larson was back to the front while the rest of the field played catch up. Larson said that after Blaney’s green flag pit stop, he noticed that his car picked up speed to contend and Larson wasn’t able to put as much distance between the two.
“Ultimately just had to run my tires too hard to try and get that gap and I didn’t have anything there at the end,” Larson said.
Larson said it was “tough to say” whether he would have been able to hold off Blaney even if he hadn’t been stalled by Logano, adding that his tires were “pretty much gone at that point” and that he was sliding around. The lapped traffic didn’t help, especially as he raced between a fleet of lapped Penske cars driven by Logano and Brad Keselowski at the end of the race.
Despite the second place finish, Larson made another statement after his win at Las Vegas two weeks ago, when he scored his seventh win in the series and first win of the season. Larson’s Hendrick teammates Bowman and William Byron also finished in the top-10, with Byron in eighth place, marking another strong showing for the organization. Chase Elliott exited early with an engine issue for a bottom finish, so Larson remained the star of the show. That is, until Blaney struck.
STEWART-HAAS STUCK IN A RUT
While the typically dominant Hendrick, Penske and Joe Gibbs Racing teams showed their speed, Stewart-Haas remained absent from the leaderboard conversation.
Kevin Harvick had nowhere near the same success at Atlanta as he has in the past. The defending race winner was forced to pit from third place for a flat tire after the competition caution as the race went green. He was frustrated with his equipment throughout the race, calling his No. 4 Ford “the biggest pile of crap” he’s ever driven at the track.
Harvick’s No. 4 Ford ran in the bottom-20 through the first stage and was lapped by Larson early. He raced into 20th place in the second stage, and was up to 12th by the final 30 laps. Despite the troublesome start, Harvick finished in 10th place, which spoke more to the driver’s skill than his car’s speed.
“I’d say the biggest surprise for me is that Stewart-Haas has been struggling a little bit,” Blaney said. “Which I think has shocked everybody, but great team, they’ll figure it out.”
His Stewart-Haas Racing teammates also missed it again, with Aric Almirola, Cole Custer and Chase Briscoe all missing stage points by finishing out of the top-10 in both stages. Almirola called the start to the season for the No. 10 team “horrendous” earlier this week, but he was buoyed by his most recent performance at Phoenix in which he finished 11th.
But the setbacks only continued for not only Almirola, but the whole SHR organization at Atlanta, pointing to a definitely “off” start to the season. He finished 20th, while Custer finished 18th and Briscoe finished 23rd.
