This story was originally published by Dead Spin
Joey Logano got help from teammate Ryan Blaney in NASCAR overtime and opened the Cup Series postseason Sunday by roaring to victory in the Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga.
In the green-white-checkered finish, Logano lined up ahead of Team Penske teammate Blaney and outdueled Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez, who lined up beside Logano, and stablemate Ross Chastain.
Logano recorded his 34th career win and second of 2024 by beating Suarez by 0.212 seconds, advancing the No. 22 Ford to the Round of 12 following the next two races.
Blaney, Christopher Bell and Alex Bowman completed the top five. The next five finishers were Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, William Byron and Austin Cindric.
For the fifth time in 2024, polesitter Michael McDowell brought them down to start the first playoff race on the 1.54-mile layout and led the first 30 laps, but the first caution on Lap 56 was a two-car wreck and a major blow to a pair of championship contenders.
Entering the championship run with the most playoff points, Larson (37th place) had his No. 5 Chevrolet snap and turn hard to the right in Turn 2, eventually smashing into the wall and sliding into traffic.
Then Briscoe (38th), last week’s surprising winner Southern 500 winner at Darlington, came through and struck the rear of the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet at near full speed.
Blaney won the segment’s 10 points, followed by Cindric and Bowman.
The same three topped Stage 2 as well but in a different order — Cindric, Blaney and Bowman — in a quick segment that set up a race just under 100 laps to the checkers.
With less than 60 laps left, Chris Buescher lost his No. 17 Ford similarly to Larson and hit Blaney, whose No. 12 Ford struck the wall, came down and tagged Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 19 Toyota.
Ty Gibbs took the lead with 27 laps left but was shuffled back in the final laps and finished 17th.
With two to go and Suarez and Logano battling side-by-side, Noah Gragson brought the seventh caution on the backstretch to set up NASCAR overtime.
–Field Level Media
