NASCAR live updates: Ryan Blaney wins Atlanta Cup race, shocking Kyle Larson

Note: Live updates on this story are complete. Full NASCAR race analysis and takeaways will be posted here.

The NASCAR Cup Series races today at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a 1.54-mile intermediate track in Hampton, Ga. The Folds of Honor QuickTrip 500 starts at 3 p.m. on FOX.

Stages end on laps 105, 210 and 325. All times are Eastern.

Check back here for live updates throughout the race and follow NASCAR reporter Alex Andrejev on Twitter at @AndrejevAlex.

NASCAR race at Atlanta results

Final stage

6:47 p.m., Lap 325: And we have a final result. After running patiently behind Kyle Larson all day, Ryan Blaney pops out and passes him for the lead, and then hangs on for a two-second win. Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch are the rest of the top five. Results in a moment.

6:44 p.m., Lap 318: Lead change! Ryan Blaney has passed Kyle Larson.

6:42 p.m.: Lap 315: Kyle Larson still leads. Kyle Larson is still fast. And Kyle Larson is 10 laps away from his first ever three-stage sweep in a race. Blaney has closed the gap to under a half second, though. This could be a good finish. Bowman still 8+ seconds back. Larson has led 267 of 315 laps so far.

6:30 p.m., Lap 293: Down to 17 cars on the lead lap and tire wear is becoming the silent story here. Most of the drivers appear to be ready to gamble on what they have on now. All are good on fuel. Kyle Larson has only three other drivers within 10 seconds of him.

6:25 p.m., Lap 282: A couple of peeks of sunshine here has the potential to change track conditions as we get closer to the final laps. Kyle Larson has increased his lead again to more than 3 seconds, and Ryan Blaney has that much on third-place Alex Bowman.

6:15 p.m., Lap 267: Ryan Blaney has closed the gap on Kyle Larson for the first time today during a long green-flag run. The drivers are coming up on the final green-flag pit window, and the Blaney crew has been consistently faster than Larson’s crew all day.

Daniel Suárez was too fast off the pits. He was running in the top-10, and he’ll have to serve a penalty.

6:10 p.m., Lap 253: Twenty cars on the lead lap — for now — and with 72 to go, the No. 5 car is still cruising. A few other notes here: Kurt Busch will finish in last after a crash earlier in the race sent him into the wall and he sustained heavy right-side damage; Kevin Harvick had tire trouble earlier, and had radioed he was having an awful day, but the veteran and Atlanta-whisperer has his car back to 15th.

6:04 p.m., Lap 244: Ryan Blaney briefly took the lead, but Kyle Larson wrestled it right back, and now he’s in the lead by more than 1.5 seconds and the gap is growing. He’s been dominant all day.

5:46 p.m., Lap 220: Kyle Larson takes off on the restart and already has a decent gap on Ryan Blaney. Chase Elliot, who was one of the final racers on the lead lap, had his car “blow up” and out came the caution just a few laps into the final stage.

Stage 2

5:28 p.m., Lap 205: Kyle Larson dominates the leaderboard, winning the first two stages of the race. He has seven seconds over Ryan Blaney, who finishes the stage in second. Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, William Byron, Matt DiBenedetto, Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher, Denny Hamlin and Daniel Suárez also earn stage points. Kevin Harvick finishes the stage in 20th. All Stewart-Haas Racing drivers ran at least one lap down during that round. Cole Custer finished as the team’s highest finisher in 16th, followed by Aric Almirola in 19th, Harvick and Chase Briscoe in 24th. Larson narrowly wins the race off pit road over Blaney for the restart.

5:22 p.m., Lap 192: Kyle Larson has a full 10 seconds on second place runner Alex Bowman. The running order is Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Matt DiBendetto and William Byron following.

5:04 p.m., Lap 162: Green flag pit stops begin with Chase Briscoe, Ryan Newman and Corey LaJoie pitting around Lap 158, followed by a group of Toyotas and Fords. Leader Kyle Larson pits on Lap 161 and stays in the lead as teammate Alex Bowman takes second place. Larson quickly puts over five seconds between him and the second place driver again. His car is dominant today. Daniel Suárez also makes a brief run in the top-three before pitting. With penalties this week, engineer José Blasco-Figueroa is stepping as an interim crew chief for the race, making them the first Mexican crew chief and driver pairing in the NASCAR Cup series since 1959. The first pairing was Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez at Trenton Speedway in 1959.

4:57 p.m., Lap 147: Brad Keselowski is a lap down, running behind teammate Ryan Blaney as well. He joins Kevin Harvick who is down a lap in 22nd. Harvick reports that his “front’s definitely better. I need some rear-grip though,” he says.

4:47 p.m., Lap 130: Kyle Larson leads the field with 2.7 seconds over Ryan Blaney in second. Alex Bowman, Matt DiBenedetto, William Byron, Austin Dillon, Kyle Buch, Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. all run in the top-10. Kyle Busch continues to report his car is “way to tight” after loosing positions on the last caution. Brad Keselowski drops to the last car on the lead lap after running into Martin Truex Jr. “Nose is broken pretty good,” he says on his radio.

4:33 p.m., Lap 115: The caution is out after Kurt Busch spins following the restart. He spins into the wall, losing it after a push by Denny Hamlin on the outside lane behind him. Neither driver is happy after that restart and Kurt Busch is done for the day with damage Hamlin pits to check the nose of his car, which is banged up, but he’s told the nose and fender are good to go and rejoins the race. Kyle Larson will re-lead the field to green.

Stage 1

4:20 p.m., Lap 105: Kyle Larson sails to a stage 1 win, maxing out with an eight second lead over second place runner Kyle Busch with three laps to go in the stage. Kyle Busch finishes the stage second, followed by Ryan Blaney, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher and William Byron in the top-10. The order doesn’t change for the restart among the leaders, with Larson, Kyle Busch and Blaney as the first three off pit road.

4:08 p.m., Lap 80: Kevin Harvick goes a lap down as leader Kyle Larson passes him low. Harvick says on his radio that this is the, “biggest pile of crap” he’s ever driven at Atlanta. “Can’t get it to do anything,” Harvick says. “The front end is absolutely horrendous, when it gets into traffic, it just gets worse.” This race is not panning out as the defending Atlanta winner had hoped. Kyle Busch tells his team he’s chewing tires and is told to “make it live.” He’s up to second, followed by Ryan Blaney.

4 p.m., Lap 63: Denny Hamlin leads the frontrunners to pit road. Kyle Larson follows to pit on the next lap, and comes off pit road side-by-side with Kevin Havick, in 29th, but Larson is able to stay ahead of him. Kurt Busch stays out, followed by Byron, to inherit the lead, before green flag pit stops conclude and Larson goes back to the lead. Hamlin is 1.6 seconds back. Before the early stop, he was about 2.5 seconds behind Larson, so he picked up some pace on the leader.

3:54 p.m., Lap 57: Chase Elliott is running in eight place after cracking the top-10 by Lap 50 from starting at the back. Kyle Busch also has a fast car today and is running in third place behind Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin. Larson has three seconds on Hamlin.

3:44 p.m., Lap 38: The running order shakes out to Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Alex Bowman 10 laps after the restart.

3:35 p.m., Lap 25: At the competition caution, the leaders all pit, but Kyle Larson gets off ahead of Denny Hamlin to replace him as the leader for the restart. Corey LaJoie and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. get a speeding penalty and will be sent to the back. Kevin Harvick, who was supposed to restart third, has a flat tire and drops to pit road as the field goes green. Kyle Larson maintains the lead, choosing the inside lane for the restart.

3:27 p.m., Lap 10: Denny Hamlin has led all opening laps at Atlanta, but Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick are on his tail. After getting to second place quickly, Harvick is passed by Larson, who is running 0.3 seconds behind Hamlin. Tyler Reddick comes to pit road under the green flag after he gets into the wall. “I don’t know how long it’ll last here, Randall, he hit it a ton,” Reddick tells his crew chief on his radio. The No. 8 team plans to make adjustments during the next stop.

Pre-race ceremonies

3:05 p.m.: Musical artist Breland performs the national anthem and the jet flyover is completed over the track. NFL broadcaster Erin Andrews gives the command to fire engines before pace laps get underway.

2:50 p.m.: Driver introductions are underway at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. are starting in the front row for the race, with Hamlin on the pole. Kyle Busch receives a loud reaction from the crowd, as does Bubba Wallace, with a mix of cheers and boos. But the loudest fan reaction comes for hometown favorite Chase Elliott.

More cars sent to the back

2:12 p.m.: NASCAR announces full pre-race penalties for today, which include Chase Elliott’s car for multiple inspection failures, Quin Houff’s No. 00 for unapproved adjustments. Timmy Hill’s No. 66 car failed inspection three times, so he will drop to the rear for the start, serve a pass through penalty and lose his car chief for today’s race. Houff was slated to start 35th and Hill was slated to start 38th.

Elliott dropping to the rear

2 p.m.: Hendrick Motorsports announces that the No. 9 car driven by Chase Elliott will start from the rear of the field today due to inspection issues. Elliott was slated to start fifth and has not yet won a Cup race at Atlanta, the track in his home state. As cars were lineup up on the grid before the race, Elliott’s car had some light smoke coming from up from underneath it. The No. 3 car driven by Austin Dillon was also smoking from the same exhaust area before the race, as well as the No. 42 driven by Ross Chastain, but Dillon’s car appeared to have the heaviest smoke.

NASCAR has not released the list of all drivers dropping to the rear.

NASCAR won’t penalize Gragson

10:30 a.m.: NASCAR announces that it will not penalize Xfinity driver Noah Gragson for an incident on pit road during Saturday’s race that resulted in a post-race fight between Gragson and driver Daniel Hemric. NASCAR deemed that Gragson did not deliberately contact Hemric’s car as he backed into his pit box. Hemric interpreted the maneuver as retaliatory for botching Gragson’s pit stop, which he said was unintentional, and initiated a fist fight with Gragson. He did not accept Gragson’s explanation on Twitter following the race. Read more about the incident here.

Justin Allgaier won the Xfinity race after Kyle Busch won the Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday.

NASCAR this weekend: How to watch the race at Atlanta

• Race: Folds of Honor QuickTrip 500
• When: Sunday, March 21 at 3 p.m.
• How to watch/listen: FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Distance: 325 laps, 500.5 miles on the 1.54-mile quad-oval
• Stages: Laps 105, 210, 325
• Last year’s winner: Kevin Harvick

NASCAR Cup at Atlanta starting order

This story was originally published March 21, 2021 at 2:00 PM.

Alexandra Andrejev

The Charlotte Observer

NASCAR and Charlotte FC beat reporter Alex Andrejev joined The Observer in January 2020 following an internship at The Washington Post. She is a two-time APSE award winner for her NASCAR beat coverage and National Motorsports Press Association award winner. She is the host of McClatchy’s podcast “Payback” about women’s soccer. Support my work with a digital subscription