HAMPTON, Ga. — The second superspeedway race of the Cup Series season has concluded, and a second Chevrolet driver has qualified for the playoffs.
Daniel Suarez won Sunday's race It was Atlanta Motor Speedway's first Cup win on an oval track and first since Sonoma in 2022. He parked his No. 99 Chevrolet in Victory Lane after taking control on the final restart following a red flag delay that lasted 11 minutes. And 25 seconds.
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Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Austin Cindric, Bubba Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ross Chastain, Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top 10.
There were 48 lead changes in Sunday's race. This set a new Cup record at Atlanta Motor Speedway, surpassing the 46 times set in the March 2022 race. There were 14 different leaders, meaning Atlanta had five straight races with more than 10 leaders.
There were 10 cautions in the race (8 of which were due to on-track incidents), and 22 cars finished on the lead lap. There were eight DNFs and six cars that finished a few laps behind the leaders.
the first and largest shipwreck It occurred on the second lap, when the outside line clustered behind Todd Gilliland. This set off a chain reaction that brought together 16 cars. Suarez's No. 99 car was involved, but was able to continue the race.
Busch leads the Cup standings. He has a one-point advantage over Daytona 500 winner William Byron and Austin Cindric. Suarez is seventh in the standings, 13 points behind Busch.
Two-time Cup champion Joey Logano is 33rd in points after finishing 32nd and 28th in the first two races of the season. 2012 Cup champion Brad Keselowski finished 33rd in both the Daytona and Atlanta races and is 36th in points.
The Cup season continues on Sunday, March 3rd with the first intermediate track of the season. Each team will face Las Vegas Motor Speedway at 3:30 p.m. ET.
