Quaker State 400: Joey Logano wins at Atlanta, advances to Round of 12

Joey Logano delivered a clutch win that helped him advance in the playoffs. (Photo: Sean Gardner | Getty Images)

HAMPTON, Ga. — After an impressive day at the track where he used to race Legends and Bandolero cars as a kid, Joey Logano won the Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart at Atlanta Motor Speedway, punching his ticket to the Round of 12 in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Logano received multiple key pushes in NASCAR Overtime from his Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney to earn his second Cup Series win of the year and 34th career Cup Series victory.

“To be able to finally capitalize on a fast race car and win here in Atlanta again, I lived right over there in condo 805 for a long time, waking up dreaming of just racing on this race track, so pulling into Victory Lane here is always a special one,” Logano said. “We had such a really good team here today.  It’s awesome to get Autotrader into Victory Lane and the JL Kids Crew are here today, so it’s really cool to finally win with them here.”

With his victory, Logano can completely focus on getting ready for the next round of the playoffs. Entering the postseason, if Logano had not won at Nashville Superspeedway earlier this season, he would have missed the playoffs.

The driver who won in a spectacular photo finish at Atlanta in February, Daniel Suárez, ended up second in his No. 99 Quaker State Chevrolet. Suárez had a better restart in NASCAR Overtime but said he got out too far ahead which ultimately handed Logano the victory. When asked if he was satisfied with a runner-up finish, the Trackhouse Racing driver felt some disappointment in coming so close to sweeping Atlanta.

“No, definitely not satisfied,” Suárez said. “I am happy with it, but not satisfied. I lost my pusher, my teammate [Ross Chastain]. He was doing a great job, and I felt like we were going to have a great shot at it. Ross was doing an amazing job of pushing, and I don’t know if he got a flat tire or something, but once I lost him, I knew it was going to be tough. But, that is part of racing, right?

“I can’t thank everyone enough; Trackhouse Racing, all the men and women. I have to give a shout out here to the race track and Quaker State for helping me design this amazing race car. It was nice to run strong today, but when you are that close and obviously we had a good shot, it’s never too fun.”

Blaney, the defending Cup Series champion, finished third after being involved in an earlier incident.

“Honestly, I can’t believe we got back up to where we did,” Blaney said. “The 12 boys did a really good job of fixing it. I’m surprised it didn’t have more damage than what it did. From my seat, I got drilled in the left rear, or the door I guess where it hit me, and then the right rear got off the fence. I didn’t know how damaged we were, but I was able to carve up through traffic and kind of get through the middle pretty good. I’m really proud of the effort.”

Results from the 2024 Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart are listed below:

Other Race Facts

Team Penske had a very successful day at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Joey Logano won the race and earned 47 points. Ryan Blaney won Stage 1, earning 53 points while finishing third. Then, Austin Cindric led the most laps (92), won Stage 2 and earned 46 points after finishing 10th.

A huge wreck late in Stage 1 took two playoff drivers out of the race. Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson slammed the wall hard as Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe smashed into him.

Kyle Busch was the lone non-playoff driver inside the top 10 at Atlanta after finishing seventh. Busch now has four straight finishes inside the top seven.

Christopher Bell and his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team have built some momentum lately with finishes of third, third and fourth in the last three races.