Daniel Suarez wins wild NASCAR race in photo finish at Atlanta
Daniel Suarez emerged victorious in Sunday’s NASCAR race at Atlanta.
The wild race culminated with a photo finish in which Suarez took the checkered flag just before Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch crossed the finish line.
The race featured what is being called the biggest wreck in the history of Atlanta Motor Speedway (120 races) on the second lap. The rest of the race saw 48 lead changes, also a new track record, and 14 different leaders.
“It was so damn close, man,” Suarez said afterward. “It was good racing. Ryan Blaney there; Kyle Busch; Austin Cindric also was doing a great job giving pushes. ... We wrecked lap 2. The guys did an amazing job fixing this car. I can’t thank everyone enough.”
Blaney came in second, Busch third, Cindric fourth and Bubba Wallace finished fifth. It’s the second win of Suarez’s career, after his Sonoma triumph in 2022.
The win — coming after the third-closest finish in Cup Series history — likely gives Suarez a spot in the playoffs, where the opening race is scheduled for Sept. 8 at Atlanta.
If it’s anything like Sunday’s race, well...
“Can’t complain much by losing by a handful of inches,” Blaney said. “I’m smiling today because we ran the whole race, three good stages, and we’re in second. Lot of guys got torn up.”
Before the race, Joey Logano was dropped to the rear as his gloves didn’t meet NASCAR’s SFI specifications. The two-time Cup champion had qualified on the front row and had to serve a pass-through penalty. He may incur more penalties Tuesday, NASCAR said.
Michael McDowell started on the pole for the first time in his career and led four different times early, including as the green-and-white checkered flag was waving, to win a lengthy Stage 1.
Fourteen drivers were involved in the huge crash on Lap 2, when Todd Gilliland tried to create a hole toward the front of the pack near Turn 1.
Josh Williams, the driver who parked his car on the start-finish line in last year’s Xfinity race at Atlanta, was the only one involved in the wreck who didn’t finish the race.
Logano worked through the field and led for a significant chunk of Stage 2. But his No. 22 car was caught up in a wreck on Turn 4 of the last lap of the stage — Chris Buescher got into the wall and took out both Logano and Denny Hamlin — as Austin Cindric surged to the stage win.
Hamlin returned to the front of the pack during the final stage and led the race late. But he made contact with Chase Briscoe while those two were running fourth and fifth, prompting a red flag.
Ryan Blaney led the field to green on the restart with 15 laps left, battling Suarez, Busch and Cindric for the lead. The race’s 10th caution came moments later, as Cindric got loose and collected Chase Elliott, Josh Berry and Carson Hocevar.
The final five laps were clean, with Blaney and Suarez leading the field to green. The race ended in a three-wide photo finish in which Suarez narrowly edged Busch and Blaney.
Said Busch: “We had a Lightning McQueen-style finish there.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2024 at 12:00 AM.
