NASCAR: Joey Logano wins playoff opener at Atlanta

Joey Logano opened the playoffs with a win on Sunday.

Logano clinched a spot in the second round of the playoffs after he drove past Daniel Suarez on a green-white-checker restart at Atlanta. Logano got a push from Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney to get past Suarez and easily held on for the win as a crash happened back in the field in the final two corners.

The two-time Cup Series champion is one of the best drivers at drafting tracks like Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta. It’s his second win at Atlanta since the track was reconfigured in 2022 to race more like Daytona and Talladega with cars artificially bunched together.

Logano’s win comes as many playoff drivers had awful days. That group included Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin. Larson crashed out of the race in the first stage while running third and Briscoe piled into him.

Truex got caught up in a wreck with Blaney and Chris Buescher. Blaney’s car was damaged and his team wrapped it in tape, but it somehow was still competitive. Blaney almost got past Suarez for second on the final lap.

Hamlin, meanwhile, was in the back of the pack all day after he started last because of an issue in qualifying. Hamlin complained of a loose car throughout the race and never made his way through the field before he was caught up in the last-lap crash.

The top 10, meanwhile, was filled with nine playoff drivers. Kyle Busch in seventh was the only non-playoff driver outside the 16-driver playoff field to finish in the top 10.

The green-white-checker restart was set up by two cautions over the final 10 laps of the scheduled 260-lap race. The first of those cautions came with 10 laps to go when a Walmart sign hanging over the track fell onto the frontstretch.

Yes, really.

The second caution came when Noah Gragson went spinning on the backstretch and hit the inside wall. Given the nature of the racing at Atlanta, it’s a mild surprise that even more cars weren’t crashed after the Walmart sign fell on the track.

The biggest loser from the sign’s demise was Ty Gibbs. He was leading the race and had fresher tires and more fuel than the drivers around him. He made a couple of poor lane decisions over the race’s final laps, however, and fell to ninth before Gragson’s crash and dropped even more spots to 18th at the checkered flag.

Atlanta is the first race of the three-race first round with races at a road course in Watkins Glen and the iconic short high banks of Bristol to complete the first round. With Logano’s win advancing him to the next round, there are 11 spots available in the second round of the playoffs with four drivers getting eliminated after Bristol.

Playoff standings

1. Joey Logano (win)

2. Ryan Blaney (+45 to 13th)

3. Christopher Bell (+40)

4. Tyler Reddick (+33)

5. William Byron (+33)

6. Alex Bowman (+27)

7. Austin Cindric (+27)

8. Chase Elliott (+24)

9. Daniel Suarez (+22)

10. Kyle Larson (+15)

11. Denny Hamlin (+2)

12. Ty Gibbs (tied)

13. Brad Keselowski

14. Harrison Burton (-15)

15. Martin Truex Jr. (-18)

16. Chase Briscoe (-20)

Race results

1. Joey Logano

2. Ryan Blaney

3. Daniel Suarez

4. Christopher Bell

5. Alex Bowman

6. Tyler Reddick

7. Kyle Busch

8. Chase Elliott

9. William Byron

10. Austin Cindric

11. Daniel Henric

12. Justin Haley

13. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

14. Ross Chastain

15. Corey LaJoie

16. Carson However

17. Ryan Preece

18. Ty Gibbs

19. Brad Keselowski

20. Austin Dillon

21. JJ Yeley

22. Michael McDowell

23. Zane Smith

24. Denny Hamlin

25. BJ McLeod

26. Erik Jones

27. Todd Gilliland

28. Josh Berry

29. Bubba Wallace

30. Cody Ware

31. Harrison Burton

32. Shane van Gisbergen

33. John Hunter Nemechek

34. Noah Gragson

35. Martin Truex Jr.

36. Chris Buescher

37. Kyle Larson

38. Chase Briscoe