Ryan Blaney stuns Kyle Larson, wins Atlanta Cup race

March 22, 2021 c_admin NASCAR News Comments Off on Ryan Blaney stuns Kyle Larson, wins Atlanta Cup race

Kyle Larson dominated Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But it was Ryan Blaney that claimed the checkered flag.

Blaney closed in on Larson as the laps wound down and took the lead from him with nine laps to go. He went on to win by over two seconds over Larson and became the sixth different winner in as many races this Cup season.

Larson won both stages and led a race-high 269 laps before having to settle for the runner-up.

Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch completed the top five finishers in Sunday’s 500-miler.

STAGE 1 WINNER: Kyle Larson

STAGE 2 WINNER: Kyle Larson

WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Austin Dillon‘s sixth-place finish was his first top 10 since the season-opening Daytona 500 (finished third) … Like he did a few weeks ago at Miami, Chris Buescher showed well on Atlanta’s similarly low-grip track. This time, he got the result, finishing seventh in his first top 10 performance of the season.

WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Kurt Busch‘s day ended with a crash off the Lap 113 restart. The restart began with Kyle Busch spinning his tires and stacking up the outside lane, where Kurt Busch was third in line. Entering Turn 1, Denny Hamlin pushed Kurt Busch too hard from behind and into the wall. … A mechanical failure on his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet sent hometown favorite Chase Elliott out of the race at Lap 220.

NOTABLE: Kevin Harvick (finished tenth) didn’t lead a lap at Atlanta for the first time since his ninth-place finish in September 2013 for Richard Childress Racing.

NEXT: The Cup Series races next Sunday, March 28, on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX). It will be the first race on dirt for NASCAR’s premier division since 1970.

This story will be updated…

Read More About NASCAR

Chase Elliott to start at rear of field at Atlanta What matters in Atlanta: Tire wear makes speed deficiency difficult to mask Atlanta Xfinity race results

Ryan Blaney stuns Kyle Larson, wins Atlanta Cup race originally appeared on NBCSports.com