Kurt Busch wins Cup Series race at Atlanta

 

Chip Ganassi Racing

     Kurt Busch has won the “Quaker State” 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, scoring his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2021 season, and punching his ticket to this season’s playoffs.

After seven Top-10s this season, Kurt Busch scored his 34th Cup Series victory, in what will go down as a race to remember. Kurt Busch easily had the best car on track this past Sunday, and showed some speed not seen by the veteran race car driver in several years. This victory for Kurt did not come easy though, especially as his younger brother Kyle Busch trailed him closely for most of this race. The Busch brothers had a lengthy battle for the lead, at times swapping back and forth, and trying to hold one another off. Ultimately Kurt Busch had the technique, speed, and connections needed to win the race. 

Speaking of connections, a man we might have interest in talking about is Ross Chastain. Young driver Ross Chastain is currently in his first full time season in the NASCAR Cup Series, competing for Chip Ganassi Racing. This situation leaves Chastain as a teammate of Kurt Busch, and today that connection (and likely friendship) was put on full display. The closing laps of this race saw Kurt and Kyle Busch extremely close, and coming upon lap traffic made the competition even closer. One of those lap cars happened to be the No. 42 of Ross Chastain. Seeing the two brothers battling behind him, Chastain let teammate Kurt Busch by, though held his ground when it came to Kyle Busch. This team effort widened the gap between Kurt and Kyle, and was one of many contributing factors to Kurt Busch’s victory. Not so surprisingly, little brother Kyle was not thrilled after today’s race.

Another talking point of this race is the fact that this is the end of an era for Atlanta Motor Speedway, as following today’s race the “cheese grating” surface will be dug up repaved, and reconfigured. It’s obvious that the famous racing surface has seen better days, as during the “Quaker State” 400 a red flag was brought out for a piece of the track breaking apart, but the re-configuration part is what is scaring fans and drivers alike. Atlanta Motor Speedway and Speedway Motorsports plans to take Atlanta’s 24 degree track, and transform its banking to 28 degrees. Not only that but the racing new racing surface will be narrowed to allow for “Closer Racing”. While this idea will likely bring some very interesting and exciting racing, drivers are simply bothered that this track, a favorite for many will never be the same, and that very few (if any) drivers were consulted on this decision. It appears that this will be a controversial topic for a while. With that being said as the sun sets in Atlanta Georgia and the crews begin to prepare the speedway for construction, I am certainly honored to have seen the track put on a show one final time. 

Kyle Busch won stage one of this race, while brother Kurt Busch won stage two. 

The following are the complete race results:

1. Kurt Busch- No. 1
2. Kyle Busch- No. 17
3. Martin Truex Jr.- No. 19
4. Alex Bowman- No. 48
5. Ryan Blaney- No. 12
6. Tyler Reddick- No. 8
7. Chase Elliott- No. 9
8. Christopher Bell- No. 20
9. Matt DiBenedetto- No. 21
10. Brad Keselowski- No. 2
11. Kevin Harvick- No. 4
12. Austin Dillon- No. 3
13. Denny Hamlin- No. 11
14. Bubba Wallace- No. 21
15. Chase Briscoe- No. 14
16. Chris Buescher- No. 17
17. Cole Custer- No. 41
18. Kyle Larson- No. 5
19. Joey Logano- No. 22
20. William Byron- No. 24
21. Ross Chastain- No. 41
22. Corey LaJoie- No. 7
23. Aric Almirola- No. 10
24. Erik Jones- No. 43
25. Ryan Preece- No. 37
26. Anthony Alfredo- No. 38
27. Michael McDowell- No. 34
28. Ryan Newman- No. 6
29. Justin Haley- No. 77
30. BJ McLeod- No. 78
31. Garrett Smithley- No. 553
32. Bayley Currey- No. 15
33. Cody Ware- No. 51
34. Josh Bilicki- No. 52
35. Quin Houff- No. 00
36. Daniel Suarez- No. 99
37. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.- No. 47 - DNF 

Party like you just locked yourself into the #NASCARPlayoffs!@KurtBusch | @CGRTeams pic.twitter.com/9KkcqipGQr

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 11, 2021

The battle for the lead in Atlanta native @LilJon lyrics:

Get low, get low, get low, get low, get low — @KurtBusch

To the windoooooow, to the wall — @KyleBusch pic.twitter.com/OkdC5kOQvM

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 11, 2021

The red flag has been displayed at @amsupdates due to ongoing track repair on the frontstretch. pic.twitter.com/Vjy8z4Btxr

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 11, 2021