Logano beats Suarez to win playoff opener

Team Penske’s Joey Logano won the opening race of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs at Atlanta Motor Speedway to advance to the round of 16 by defeating Daniel Suarez.

Logano won in a two-lap sprint in overtime after teammate Ryan Blaney gave him a push, beating Trackhouse driver Suarez on the top lane.

The winner of the February race at the track was pushed by his teammate Ross Chastain, but the connection between the Trackhouse drivers was quickly broken, clearing the way for Logano.

“Incredible execution from the team,” said 2018 and 2022 Cup champion Logano. “When it’s playoff time, it’s our time.”

Suarez said: “I was confident it would be better at the top.

“We had a great launch, but we just disconnected too early, and that obviously hurt us. It’s a little bit painful.”

Early in the race, title favorite and top seed Kyle Larson crashed after losing control just a few laps from the finish of Stage 1. Fellow playoff contender Chase Briscoe was also passed, ending his race.

Additionally, the first two stages went fairly smoothly, with Blaney winning Stage 1 and fellow Penske driver Austin Cindric winning Stage 2.

Daniel Suarez, Trackhouse Racing, Quaker State Chevrolet Camaro and Joey Logano, Team Penske, Autotrader Ford Mustang

Photo by: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Images

Fuel appeared to be tight for the leaders toward the end of the race, but a caution with 56 laps to go provided a much-needed assist. Chris Buescher shot across the track and hit Blaney, whose sideways car then collided with Martin Truex Jr.

Ty Gibbs then took control of the race, hoping to secure his first career Cup victory, but a debris caution forced another yellow card with ten laps to go. The final laps developed into a straight battle between Penske and Trackhouse, but a crash by Noah Gragson forced the race into overtime.

Logano took the lower one and Suarez took the upper one. They were tied for a while, but the Trackhouse drivers got separated in Turn 3. On the final lap, Suarez could do little against the Penske duo as Chastain got boxed in by Chase Elliott, leading to a race-ending crash involving Harrison Burton and Denny Hamlin, among others.

The timing of the yellow card saw Suarez move into second place, ahead of Blaney, Christopher Bell and Alex Bowman.

Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch, Elliott, William Byron and Cindric rounded out the top ten.

Leaving Atlanta, Brad Keselowski (-1pt), Burton (-16pt), Truex (-19pt) and Briscoe (-21pt) are all below the cut-off line, with Gibbs (at +1pt) and Hamlin (+2pt) just above.

NASCAR Cup Atlanta – Race Results