Ryan Blaney leads the last nine laps to win at Atlanta

The NASCAR Cup Series closed out the weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway Sunday afternoon. Denny Hamlin won the pole for this race, and next to him was his teammate Martin Truex Jr. The “Choose Cone Rule” returned for this race. The rule allows drivers to pick which lane they want before the race starts. Chase Elliott (inspection failure), Timmy Hill (inspection failure), and Quin Houff (unapproved adjustments) were all sent to the back of the field.

Denny Hamlin got a great jump to start the race while Truex fell to fifth and Kevin Harvick moved to second place after starting seventh. Hamlin led the opening 25 laps before the competition caution came out. Everyone went to pit road during the caution, with Kyle Larson beating Hamlin off pit road for the lead. Kevin Harvick’s tire changer hit a valve stem that caused his left rear tire to go flat during pit stops. He came back to pit road just as the race resumed on lap 31.

Larson and Hamlin briefly battled for the lead before Larson took over, and Hamlin settled for second. While Larson had a two-second lead, Hamlin fought both Ryan Blaney and Kurt Busch to keep second. Both Blaney and Busch got by Hamlin, and he was now in fourth place. The first scheduled green-flag pit stops started on lap 64, with Hamlin in first. The cycle lasted three laps before Larson resumed the lead. By lap 74, he put Kevin Harvick a lap down. On lap 80, he had a five-second lead and dominated to win stage one.

Everyone went to pit road during the caution, with Larson beating Kyle Busch off pit road. The race resumed on lap 113 to start stage two. Kyle Busch got off to a bad start and bunched up the field behind him. This led to Hamlin bumping Kurt Busch out of the way, and he hit the wall at turn one to bring out the third caution. Busch would be the first car out of the race while Hamlin was on pit road fixing the damage on his nose. The race restarted on lap 119.

Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney were briefly battling for the lead. Blaney did get the lead from Larson before Larson took it back. Behind them, Martin Truex slid up and made contact with Brad Keselowski. Keselowski had some damage to the front of the car. Meanwhile, Larson picked up where he left off. He was putting more cars a lap down and had a five-second lead.

On lap 158, the second round of green-flag pit stops started with Truex, Hamlin, Logano, and Bowman the first ones in. Once the cycles ended, Larson was back in front. His lead grew to eight seconds. By lap 204, he had put both Joey Logano and Chase Elliott a lap down with a ten-second lead. Larson easily won stage two.

Everyone went to pit road during the caution, with Larson beating Blaney off pit road. The final stage was underway on lap 218. Two laps into the final stage, the fifth caution came out for Chase Elliott. His car blew a motor and left fluid on the track and would be the second car out of the race. Everyone went to pit road during the caution, with Blaney beating Larson off pit road. Larson chose to get behind Blaney for the restart with Hamlin outside as the race resumed on lap 225.

Blaney’s car was getting stronger in the third stage. He maintained the lead while Larson and Hamlin battled for second. Larson’s car was starting to give him trouble as the race went along. Blaney had trash on his grill and let Larson in front of him to get the trash off. The final green-flag pit cycles started on lap 267 with Truex in first. Anthony Alfredo spun, entering his pit box during the stops, and hit a couple of Aric Almirola’s crew members. Once the cycles were complete, Larson was still the leader.

As the laps were winding down, Blaney was slowly catching Larson each lap. By lap 317, he caught and passed Larson for the lead. Blaney would lead the last nine laps to win his first race of the season by 2.083 seconds over Larson. It was Blaney’s fifth career win in the Cup Series.

The rest of the top ten finishers were Alex Bowman third, Denny Hamlin fourth, Kyle Busch fifth, Austin Dillon sixth, Chris Buescher seventh, William Byron eighth, Martin Truex Jr. ninth, and Kevin Harvick tenth. Kyle Larson led 269 laps, the most in the race. There were eleven lead changes and five cautions for twenty-five laps.

The Cup Series now heads to Bristol Motor Speedway on the dirt next Sunday, March 28th, at 3:30 pm on FOX.

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